Flickering Flames
by FlamboyantlyBiBoy
Summary: A month before the Argo II is scheduled to leave, another Roman appears at Camp Half Blood. A legacy named Ace puts ripples through the camp, and one son of Hephaestus can't seem to keep his eyes off the visitor which puts Jason on edge as he watches the two boys; his best friend and the boy he's thought of as a brother for years. One ripple presses a Ebony and Gael closer. Slash!
1. 1) Ace Kindle

**Title: **Flickering Flames

**Fandom: **Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus

**Disclaimer: **Ace and Gael are mine, Ebony and Jacoby are my friend's and everybody else belongs to the god Rick Riordan

**Warnings: **slash, fluff, smut, self-harm (mild in what we've written), bullying, abuse...a lot of other shit

**Main Pairings: **Ace/Leo, Ebony/Gael

**Side Pairings: **Percy/Annabeth, Jason/Piper, Frank/Hazel, possibly some Chris/Clarisse hints

**Summary: **A month before the Argo II is scheduled to leave, another Roman appears at Camp Half Blood. A legacy named Ace puts ripples through the camp, and one son of Hephaestus can't seem to keep his eyes off the visitor which puts Jason on edge as he watches the two boys; his best friend and the boy he's thought of as a brother for years.

**Authors Note: **So, this is a fanfiction I started out writing on my own but one of my friends has since started helping with and added her own characters...We don't really know where this is going, so enjoy!

The blonde hair stuck to his forehead with sweat. His red eyes were hard with strain and frustration. His body rocked with excessive energy. This should be easy, he'd done it several times before but it was different somehow.

"Just do the flip." he muttered into the frosty, early morning air, "Just flip! Come on, Ace! Just do it!"

He hesitated for a few more seconds before pushing himself off the ground. He sprang forward, right hand hitting the ground to propel his body further. Instead of landing on his feet, he landed on his back with a thud.

The roman legacy lay there, breathing deeply and cursing to himself. He didn't move, staring at the setting sun.

* * *

Long Island sunrise in Spring was met by year-round campers rushing to breakfast, the sparkle of the Golden Fleece woke its guardian dragon, and three demigods made their way to the Big House basement.

Inside lay a blonde boy with a deep tan on a cot brought down from the infirmary. His eyes were closed, but it was plain he was far from asleep. Chiron sat in his wheelchair next to the boy, watching him

As the trio entered the room, their mentor turned, "Good, you're here. I thought Jason would want to be involved in this.

Jason wasn't paying attention as he was focused on the boy before them. He'd paled slightly, and walked over to the cot. At his name the boy had opened his eyes to reveal dull red pupils staring up at Jason. When he spoke, his voice was slightly raspy, "Hi..."

"Ace, what are you doing here?" The other Roman asked gently. The rest of the world had disappeared to them.

Ace had to think for a minute before answering, "I ran away...Dad tried to make Garum."

"But...oh." Jason sat on the edge of the cot, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No really." Ace shrugged, "I just ran. I didn't mean to end up here...I can leave. It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does. You can't just kick him out!" Jason glared at the Greeks around him and Ace. For the first time, it really felt like Greeks vs. Romans, and the Romans were at a disadvantage.

"We aren't going to, Jason, but we have to approach this carefully." Chiron stated, "Of course, Ace is more than welcome to stay here."

Leo hadn't been paying attention, but piped in then, "No demigod left behind, right?"

The centaur laughed, "Something like that."

The blondes looked at each other in a silent debate, but in the end the red eyed boy muttered, "I'm not a demigod..."

"But...you're from Rome?" Piper asked, staring at the intruder.

To save the boy from having to, Jason jumped in with the general explanation, "Ace is a legacy of Rome. His parents are demigods."

Silence hung in the air for a minute. Ace's gaze was focused on his hands sitting in his lap with Jason's hand on his knee. Finally, Chiron came over and set his hand on the teen's shoulder so he looked up, "You're welcome here, Ace. Jason will show you around, and we'll figure out where you'll sleep after your tour."

Jason helped Ace off the table, and he winced. Leo came forward, kneeling to look at Ace's ankle, "Burns. Were you attacked by something?"

The Roman didn't answer for a minute before muttering, "A chimera...I think."

"I can get Will." Piper offered, leaving with Chiron at Jason nod.

Ace sat back down on the table, fiddling with paperclips. That just made Jason smiled, while Leo was lost again as he looked at Ace's eyes. They were firepits, and just as expressive. When Ace had first seen Jason, there had been flames of joy flickering behind them. Now the flames were extinguished to leave only cooling embers.

"Leo?" Jason asked again, pushing his friend's shoulder.

The firebender pulled out of his trance, "Sorry, what?"

"I was saying how Ace could help with the Argo II." He looked concerned but didn't ask the other boy.

Leo turned back to Ace, but carefully avoided his eyes, "You build?"

"Some." The legacy muttered.

"Ace is one of the best in the legion." Jason ruffled the older blonde's hair, and Ace smacked him upside the head.

Piper returned, and handed Ace a cup of nectar. The blonde watched as the older's ankle healed to make sure everything went properly.

Twenty minutes after first entering, the trio left with Ace resting against Jason, his ankle still weak. As they walked, Piper was pulled away by some of her siblings. Leo had work to do, but didn't want to leave the blondes. Finally, he sighed, "I have work to do. Bring him by later, and we can show Ace the ship."

"...The ship?" Ace asked as Leo walked towards the woods.

Jason hesitated before answering, "Leo's building a trireme...to take me back to New Rome."

"...You need a trireme for that?"

Jason sat down on a fence overlooking the ocean, "Its more complicated than that, brother. Things have been weird since the Titan War. I think its time to end the separation between the Greeks and the Romans. We're all one family, right? Maybe...you're being here will make that easier."

The older blonde sighed, sitting next to Jason, "They're all staring at me...especially Leo."

"People like you don't exist here. Adult demigods don't exist here. When I noticed the difference...Chiron told me the life expectancy for a Greek is twenty."

"Then why fight?" Ace asked after a moment of silence, "If life is that hopeless, why not give up?"

"I don't know yet." Jason glanced over at him, "Anyway, tell me about back home. What's going on?"

* * *

"Welcome to the Argo II!" Leo's voice rang out strongly, echoing around the room, "She's designed as a peace ship, but don't let that fool you. Within seconds she can turn into a full fledged defense machine."

His audience wasn't listening much. Ace ran his hand along the smooth wooden banister, watching Festus creak at the passing campers.

"Ace...?" Leo asked.

"She's beautiful." The blonde murmured, "You built her?"

"With my cabin, but my design. She isn't done yet. Maybe another two or three months of work, but we're suppose to leave for New Rome in a month."

Ace was silent for a minute before straightening up, "Put me to work."

"What?"

"Let me help. Back home...its all focused on training or you could never make an automatic catapult work. I know my way around tools, just give me something to do!" The flames were back, flickering hope.

"You wanted to build an automatic catapult?" Leo asked, watching the bundle of excitement in front of him.

Ace nodded, pulling a sketchbook from his back pocket and filed through it, "I had it all drawn out and everything but Reyna said it was a waste of time..."

He sounded so disappointed..."Hey, Nessa!"

A girl came over, talking with Leo for a minute before leaving again. Leo smiled, handing the sketches back to Ace, "Build an automatic catapult."

The blonde stared at him blankly, "What?"

"You'll have to change the dimensions to make it fit on the ship, but I think it'll work."

Leo was engulfed by the trembling lithe boy, but it only lasted a minute before Ace pulled away again. The so un-Roman gesture startled the Greek. Over the past almost six months, Jason had never hugged him.

"Lunch is in a few minutes. You can start work after."

When Ace got to the dining pavilion with the Hephaestus cabin, Jason was talking avidly with Chiron. At the sight of the legacy, Chiron gestured him over, "We're disgusting where you'll be staying."

"...I thought I was staying here..." Ace looked up at him, arms crossed.

"He meant which cabin, Ace." Jason linked arms with the other Roman, "I was trying to convince him to let you stay with me."

"Its not proper, Jason." Chiron sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Ace should stay in one of his grandparents' cabins."

A girl walked by. She was buff with short cropped brown hair, and brown eyes. Behind her trailed equally tough looking teens.

She stopped, glaring at the new arrival, "Who's he?"

Instead of letting somebody else answer, Ace did it for himself, "Ace Kindle, child of Rome."

"You shouldn't act so prideful of that around here." She stepped towards Ace, trying to be intimidating. It didn't work as Ace just looked bored at her, "So, child of Rome, is that it?"  
Ace stared at her for a minute before answering, "I'm a child of Rome. My mother was a daughter of Vulcan, and my father is a son of Mars. I am a legacy of New Rome. Nothing else is needed."

The girl put her hands on her hips, "Mars, hu? Isn't that the Roman version of Ares?" Ace nodded, "We'll take him."

Chiron looked uneasy at the idea, "Clarisse, I'm not so sure..."

"I am not something you can buy." Ace glared at Clarisse, "You can't just claim me."

Jason nodded slowly, "I think you should stay with the Ares kids. It seems fitting under the situation. You need a bed, Clarisse if offering one."

The older blonde looked at the younger, before nodding slowly, "Fine."

He stormed off after the rest of the Ares cabin, ending up between two of the buffer guys. Ace looked tiny among all the bodybuilders.


	2. 2) Ebony Blake

Ebony was working in the arena, sparring with a child of Athena when the Roman arrived. She rolled her eyes when her sparring partner dropped everything and ran to the Big House. "Great. More Romans. Just what we need." Ebony picked up her sword and walked towards the Hades cabin. The last place she wanted to be was the Big House with the Roman.

To anyone who wasn't a child of Hades the cabin was dark and depressing but to Ebony and her sibling, Nico, it was absolutely perfect. The dark obsidian walls contained the shadows that swirled about the room. The flames from the torches cast a green glow on the floor and bunks. Ebony sat on her bed and pulled out her sword and began to polish the blade.

Moments later she noticed a shadow in the doorway. Ebony looked up, "Yes?" The figure in the doorway was tall and cast a long shadow.

"Ebony, you and the Morpheus cabin are assigned to work with Leo on the Argo II"

Ebony stood and sighed, "...Joy..." She put away her sword and hung it on the wall again. Then followed Chiron out of the cabin.

"Leo has asked Ace-"

"Is that the new Roman?"

He sounded tired and annoyed, as if he'd been answering that question all day. "Yes. Leo asked him to help with the construction of the Argo II since he is a descendant of Vulcan, or in Greek terms, Hephaestus."

"Wait, he's a 'descendant' of Hepheas-Vulcan?"

"Yes. I'll let Ace explain it."

Within minutes they reached the Argo II. Ebony saw the rest of the Morpheus cabin was already working on the boat.

"I'll let Leo assign you a place to work. I must attend to other things." With that, Chiron trotted away to deal with the other campers.

Ebony walked up to Leo, "Hey. Where do you need me?"

Leo looked up at her and wiped his greasy hands on his pants, "Um, you and Gael can help Ace build his catapult"

"Ace...The Roman?"

"Yeah...Is that a problem?"

"No. Its fine" she huffed and walked towards the two guys working in a corner of the room. Ebony stood there and watched them work for a moment before saying, "Hey. Leo sent me over here...What do you need me to do?"

Ace stood, wiping grease from his hands on a rag. Rather than his usually stylish clothes, he wore jeans and an orange Camp Half-Blood shirt that Jason had let him borrow, "We need more Hypoid Gears, there should be some in the drawers over there."

The other boy smiled at her sympathetically, brushing his brunette hair back, "Here, I'll help you find them."

Ebony glared at Ace, angry black flames dancing in her eyes. How dare this Roman wear a Camp Half-Blood shirt. He doesn't belong here! She turned to look at the other boy, and said with a sour tone, "Thanks"

He lead her over to one of the workbenches, "I'm Gael head of the Morpheus cabin, and that's Ace. We're building an automatic catapult, by the way."

Ebony practically ransacked the drawers in an attempt to find the gears Ace requested. "I know who he is" she spat. "I'm Ebony. Daughter of Hades." She looked dug through the drawers some more, not looking at him.

"You don't sound happy that he's here." He quickly grabbed the gears, "Did you even know what you were looking for?"

"Why should I be happy he's here? He's not a Greek. So, as far as I'm concerned he doesn't belong here. Jason is fine, I guess, since he's been able to prove his worth. So I suppose I'll like Ace better once he proves he should be here." She closed the drawer, "I figured I would guess and hope I get lucky with the gear."

Gael smiled, handing her a couple of the gears, "Here, Hypoid Gears. Ace isn't that bad. He's a Roman; a flirty Roman, but a Roman. Kind of cold, and distance. He's also very focused on the catapult."

Ebony took a few of the gears, "Whatever. We'll see in capture the flag tonight if he's any good." She headed back to Ace, slightly more open-minded about him. "Here are your gears," She dropped them on the table then stepped back to watch him work.

The brunette came over to stand next to Ebony, arms crossed as they watched the blonde work. Ace barely looked up, and just kept working. His hands moved quickly over the mechanics. They had already built the catapult part; a wooden frame with a metal pole moving between them with an axle attached to a woven basket. All he needed was to finish the mechanics to have it reload and fire with one press of a button, "Hand me the welder."

Ebony, turned around and reached across the table to hand him the welder. "So, my job is to stand here and watch you work?"

Ace shrugged, taking the welder from her, "I didn't ask for help. Leo sent you over here. I'm fine without help." He flipped his welding mask down. _Ace, just try to get along with people. Don't be a loner like back home. The stories didn't follow you here. You can try to fit in._ Jason had told him. He sighed, and turned the welder off, flipping his mask up again to look up at them, "What do you know how to do?"

The son of Morpheus shrugged, "Dream, sometimes fight...I know how to fix a tractor!"

Ebony looked at Ace, "I'm a good fighter, I can summon dead people, and shadow travel. That's it. Nothing helpful for what you're doing. So I'll just leave." She set down the rest of the gears and walked away from them.

Gael called after her, "You're suppose to help build the Argo II for the next hour!"

She laughed and called over her shoulder, "Oh well. It's called ditching." Then, without another word she stepped into the shadows and disappeared.


	3. 3) Ace Kindle

The blonde ran forward, jumping, and using a hand to propel himself over his straw enemy. He used the force of his fall to drive his Spatha through the top of the dummy's head. After landing, he grabbed the hilt, pulling it down, and successfully cutting his enemy in half.

Ace was panting slightly as he wiped sweat from his forehead. Everybody else was off at dinner, but Ace hadn't been hungry. Training was better, more logical. People didn't make sense, training and building were constants. At the beginning of his training, his frustration got the better of him. As such, there were scraps of orange fabric in the corner, and he was only in his jeans.

Ebony was standing at the entrance to the arena watching him silently. She was somewhat intrigued by his style of fighting. It was different than she was used to seeing. Suddenly, she grabbed her sword and unsheathed it. She walked in front of him, "Want to spar?"

Ace turned towards her slowly, grip tightening on the hilt of his Spatha, "You want to spar me? I was under the impression you didn't like me being here."

"Oh, I don't like you being here. But this is your chance to prove to me that you belong here." She raised her sword and pointed it as his chest.

He stepped back quickly, raising his Spatha, "I didn't exactly ask to come here, you know. It's not really that special."

Ebony laughed slightly, "Well, then, you shouldn't be afraid to spar me."

Instead of answering, he took a few more steps back, slowly inching towards the wall behind him. He held his weapon raised in defense, never really having been one to start a fight.

She stepped forward, pushed his Spatha aside with her blade then quickly struck at his side that was left open.

Ace didn't react to the blow, quickly moving his Spatha back into position. As his back hit the wall, he reached up, gripping the rails above them that helped separate the pit from the stadium seats. Using one hand, he pulled up slightly to kick her in the stomach.

Ebony stumbled backwards and fell, but she quickly recovered with a backward roll. She stood back up in position then charged him. She stabbed at his chest and slashed at his sides and legs. To a bystander they would look like random moves, but in her mind they all fit together perfectly, like a puzzle.

He could see the logic behind each strike, and avoided them easily by pulling himself up to stand on the rail. It took less than a second for him to move again; jumping down behind her using a flip to land facing her back. He pressed his Spatha gently against the small of her back.

She sighed as if people used that move all the time. Quickly she stepped behind him, hooking her foot behind his she rolled him off of her hip and pressed her knee into his ribcage, not so gently. Her sword moved to his throat and she looked down at him, barely breaking a sweat.

Ace didn't react for a few seconds like he was actually about to give up before smirking. Using his leg to hook around her calf, he flipped them over. He set his legs to lay across hers to pin them down while sitting on her chest. One arm pressed down on her wrists to keep them down above her head while the other held his Spatha right against her neck, close enough to cut if she moved.

Ebony gasped as she hit the ground, all the air rushing out of her lungs. She wiggled her fingers and felt a ditch in the sand where her sword fell. Slowly she spread out her fingers, cool metal touched her fingertips. Quickly she snatched up the blade and swung at his head. She let the blade glide just over his head, close enough for him to feel the breeze. Just enough to startle him so he'd lose his grip on her and she could push him off of her. Once she pushed him off and planted a foot on his chest and the tip of her sword at his neck. Ebony reached up to feel a warm trickle of blood flow down her neck. He must have sliced the skin when she pushed him off of her.

He flipped up from on his back to land on his feet, turning quickly to face her. Rather than attacking, he stayed back on defense. Panting softly, he avoided the point of her sword while calculating his next attack.

There were two figures in the doorway to the arena by now, watching them with twinkling brown and blue eyes. A blonde and a brunette had been following their movements with great interest, but the sight of blood on Ebony's neck made the blonde step forward, "Okay, guys, don't actually kill each other."

Ace didn't move his eyes from Ebony, glaring at her heatedly with flames flickering in his amber eyes, "Not now, Jason, I'm busy!"

Ebony glanced at Jason out of the corner of her eye then looked back at Ace and began circling him, keeping him at the point of her sword. The blood now stained the neck of camp shirt and started to dry.

Ace went to strike her again, but his arms were quickly grabbed by Jason, "You are not killing her!"

Gael moved over to them to hold Ebony back, while the blondes glared at each other. It was a silent debate between them before Ace stated, "Its going to glorious with chains."

"Except it won't," Jason answered, "because you aren't killing her. You're suppose to be fitting in or at least trying to."

"She started it!"

Ebony ignored Ace and looked at Jason, "I highly doubt he could kill me".

The older blonde growled at her, "Watch me!"

"Ace, no!" Jason pulled him back, pressing him against the wall, "No killing, maiming, or injuring. You promised me you'd try to fit in."

"I am trying. She asked if I wanted to spar so I did. I'm helping Leo build his boat, and equip it. What more do you want from me?!" Ace pushed him off, and stormed away from them back to the Ares cabin.

Ebony put away her sword, "Well, thanks for the interruption you guys." The black flames still danced in her eyes but were slowly cooling down.

Gael slowly let go of her, as Jason sat down against the wall. The brunette smiled at her, "Are you okay? You've got a little blood all...everywhere on your shirt."

"I'm fine." She wiped the blood from her neck and walked out of the arena.


	4. 4) Gael Hastings

Gael watched his siblings settle in for the night having already changed. The Morpheus cabin normally had kids going in and out for naps, watching them was rather boring in the end. As head counselor, his bed rested against the back wall in the perfect spot to see everything and everybody.

Jacoby walked up to him and sat down, "Hey. How do you like Ace so far?"

He smiled at his younger brother, shrugging, "He's alright, kind of grumpy, but that catapult's really something."

"I heard him and Ebony went at it today and that he practically tried to kill her"

"Yeah...He tried, but Jason broke it up."

Jacoby laughed slightly, "Wow...Did you talk to Ebony?"

"No, they both stormed off after." Gael looked down, rubbing his ankle.

"Are you going to sneak into her dreams tonight?"

"Do I look like that much of a pervert?" He grumbled, crossing his arms.

Jacoby smirked, "Yes."

"True. Now, its curfew so go to bed!" Gael stuck his tongue out.

"Fine!", Jacoby grumbled and went to his own bunk. As soon as his head hit the pillow he was asleep and snoring.

Once everybody else was in bed, Gael got up to turn the light off. He knew the cabin like the back of his hand, and easily moved through it to return to his bed. It only took seconds for him to fall asleep, focusing on Ebony Blake.

Her dream wasn't scary or dark and creepy like most people assume a child of Hades would dream like. Ebony sat at a bar, but not one that sold alcohol. It was a bar from the 1950's in an ice cream shop. The counter was bright red and a kind old man stood behind it wearing a white apron and hat. He smiled at her as he scooped huge amounts of ice cream into the bowl. He then poured multicolored sprinkles of all shapes and sizes onto the triple scoop.

The ice cream shop itself was alive with people dancing by the jukebox, kids talking about school, and couples sharing milkshakes. The kids turned on a swinging tune and a boy came by Ebony to pull her from her seat. She smiled at him and hopped off the stool to follow him to the corner by the jukebox. Ebony started dancing, her black and white saddle shoes glided across the floor and her skirt was flowing around her legs. This was, by far, one of her best dreams.

Gael walked into her dream, clothes easily changing to fit the 1950's theme. His brown hair slicked back, black jeans hanging to his form tightly, a tight white muscle shirt with a leather jacket over top. Quickly, he noticed Ebony dancing in the crowd, and went up to her, "Hey, little darlin'."

Ebony turned to look at him, completely shocked. "What are you doing here?!"

He shrugged, his voice slipping into the southern drawl he suppressed while at camp, "Dream hoppin'. This one's nice, I like the 50's."

Ebony glared at him, "Why are you in my dream?"

"It existed. Besides, who doesn't want to know what a child of Hades dreams about."

"Ugh! You can't tell anyone! If people find out that I have happy, ice cream filled dreams they'll laugh at me and...And it'll be awkward."

Gael looked around before smiling, "Okay, dance with me for one song, and I won't tell anybody."

Ebony groaned, "But...Fine!"

He smiled at her, the song switching to a slower dance, and he pulled her close. Ebony slowly took his hand and put the other on his shoulder. She was surprised to find that she enjoyed being this close to him. Gael held her close, but still far enough away that they could move easily. Outside of a dream, he could have never been able to even ask her let alone request it like that. Ebony pulled away from him once the song ended and blushed. Then she went to sit back at the bar to enjoy her ice cream.

He followed her, ordering a root beer float before sitting next to her, "So, this is really what all your dreams are like?"

She crossed her legs, "No. Sometimes I have dreams about superheroes, death, and Star Trek. Not all at the same time!" She smiled and took a bite of ice cream, "But mostly they're 1950's dreams."

"Oh, damn, 'cause...All at the same time sounds good." He took a sip, smiling like an idiot, "Imagine superheroes fighting Star Trek generals to the death in a 1950's mod attack."

Ebony laughed, genuinely laughed, "That would be kind of cool." She finished her ice cream and ordered another round. The old man fixed her another ice cream and slid it down the counter to her.

He smiled brightly, "I could make it happen. I could make anything you want happen."

"Seriously?"

"I'm a son of Morpheus. I exist to bring dreams to mortals. Like gifts." Gael laughed softly, taking another drink, "Dreams are what can keep mortals sane or drive them insane. Give them an adrenaline jump, or tell them what they really need to know about their lives."

Ebony smiled at him, "So you're sort of like the Santa Claus of the dream world?" She picked up the cherry from her ice cream and ate it. Then she took the stem and tied it in a knot using her tongue. "Except, ya know, you can make people go crazy or give them good advice."

Gael laughed softly, "Yeah, kind of like Santa Claus. So, what do you want to see?"

She refrained from making a sexual joke and instead said, "Um. I don't know. How about a super badass Star Trek VS The Avengers battle to the death?"

He shrugged, "No problem. What time period?"

"1950's."

Gael smiled, and stood. He offered her an arm, "Shall we then?"

Ebony curtsied and took his arm, "We shall" She laughed lightly.

He lead her out of the ice cream shop onto the streets of Manhattan just as Tony Stark ran past. Captain America ran behind him, they were being trailed by several Starfleet ships. The Star Trek ships fired their phasers at Captain America and missed him by millimeters, burning a gaping hole in the sidewalk.

All around them Manhatten was in shambles. Women were screaming, there were fires in buildings and concrete structures were falling down like a house built out of cards. Despite all of this, Ebony couldn't help but laugh. Her dream was the freaking Avengers fighting Starfleet, in the 1950's! Nothing could get better than that.

Steve Rogers threw his shield at one of the ships causing it to explode and careen into another ship, taking it out as well.

Gael smiled at the destruction, carefully keeping Ebony out of danger as they watched the show.

Ebony, screamed and stumbled into Gael as a laser shot a hole into the ground right next to her foot, "Holy Hades!"

He put his arms around her, holding her close as they stepped back from the hole, "Its okay. They're just being who they are."

Ebony continued walking down the street and stopped on a street corner when Hulk came barreling past, running from another Starfleet ship. She looked at Gael, "I think Starfleet is winning..."

"Looks like it." He agreed easily, keeping an arm around her. She noticed that he was still holding her close and stepped away slightly. Gael looked awkward let his arm drop to his side, "Sorry if...you know, I'm being too direct or something."

"No... It's okay."

Gael gently held her back as Thor crashed into the building right in front of them, "This is actually kind of impressive..."

"Oh my gods...That's Thor..." His name came out as a slight squeal.

"You have a thing for the Norse god of lightning?" He sounded kind of skeptical.

She laughed, "Not really...I mean he's attractive. But he's not really my type"

Gael sighed, pulling her gently on, "That's good." He quickly changed the subjected, "But really, that fact that the Avengers can work together is really is rather impressive."

"I guess." she shrugged, "But there were moments when they were at each other's throats."

"True. However, the fact that they weren't constantly is my point. They were able to put their differences aside of the good of everybody."

Ebony stopped walking and looked at him, "I think I know where this is going..."

He sighed, stopping in front of her, "I just think it would be better for everyone if you and Ace could pretend to get along. There are bigger issues going on. I'm not suggested you become BFFs or anything, just don't try to rip each others throats out during dinner again."

"Fine."

Gael smiled, "Thank you, and Jason said that he'd talk to Ace too."

She put her hands on her hips, "So is that what all this was about? The whole 'I'm super badass and can make your dreams cool' just so you can talk to me about Ace."

"No, I could have talked to you outside of your dreams. This just seemed more fun, and gives me the chance to show of the 'I'm super badass and can make your dreams cool' thing in a vain attempt to impress you." He used quotation marks with his fingers as he quoted her, "It's really not that cool or badass."

Ebony sighed. "Okay. I'll try to be nice to him and, yeah, it is cool and badass."

"Its not, but did it work?"

She laughed softly, "Yeah. It did."

Gael smiled brightly, "Good. Well, it's almost morning so I should go. Morpheus kids are hard to wake up, and we have a habit of taking a while."


	5. 5) Ace Kindle

"Let me be defense! Please!" Ace was practically begging by this point. As soon as he figured out what Capture the Flag was, he'd started bugging Jason about it.

"Look, I'm not in charge of where you go. Clarisse is the team leader." Jason finally told him.

The older blonde quickly turned to the brunette girl. They'd spent most of the day together as Clarisse sparred with him in some attempt to understand his fighting with little success, "Auntie Clarisse, can I be on defense, please?!"

"With how you've been fighting? I wouldn't put you anywhere else." At Jason's look of horror behind Ace, she addressed him, "What? Why? He'd be no good hiding from the action to protect the flag. He's bloodthirsty."

"That's what I'm afraid of!" Jason muttered.

"I already promised to keep from killing anybody." Ace pointed out, "Come on, please?"

Clarisse smiled, showing him on a map where to go. Ace's eyes quickly scanned the map, and nodded before racing off almost silently through the trees. She watched him go before turning to Jason, "There, at least he's not directly in the heart of the fighting."

Ace kept silent as he ran to where Clarisse had directed him to go, quickly dropping to his knees once he got there, and started pulling paper clips out of his pockets. It took less than ten minutes for him to finish his work, and drop down from the tree branch. That's when boredom hit. Clarisse had said to stay here, but he could see through the trees right to the other team's camp. Their flag was right there.

Nobody knew how the flag was taken expect Ace. One minute it was there, the next second a Hephaestus turned to see it no longer hanging from the tree, and no enemy in sight. Ace stopped a few inches from the stream with one hand tightly holding the fabric of the flag against the pole to minimize wind resistance and sound, still in enemy territory, as he noticed his trap had caught somebody.

Leo Valdez hung upside down from a tree several feet into Ares' team terf by his ankle caught in a paper clip lasso. He didn't look happy about the arrangement, and had been just about to burn the horrible things when there was a flash of blonde at the stream. Ace, of course!

Leo watched him walk closer then he yelled at him, "Ace! Get me down from here!"

The blonde laughed softly, walking across the stream, "Well, I wasn't expecting to catch such pretty prey."

Leo glared at him, "How did you get our flag so soon?"

"Your idiot guards had their backs to it." Ace shrugged, stepping into friendly territory, and effectively winning the game. Leo struggled against the trap, ready to burn it to ashes in two seconds if Ace didn't let him down soon. The blonde crouched down in front of him so their faces were almost uncomfortably close, "I really didn't expect this to work...Not against Vulcan kids at least."

"Ace, I am two seconds from incinerating this little trap of yours. Let me down."

The blonde bit his lip; he didn't want to let Leo down yet, but was also very proud of the little paperclip trap. He didn't think about it before acting on his solution. Ace had mild ADHD so that happened sometimes. He pressed his lips to Leo's lightly. Leo, slightly shocked, didn't react for a moment. But, then he did something unexpected. He kissed back.

Ace jumped back, falling to sit on the ground and stare at the other boy in shocked confusion, "You...you weren't suppose to do that!"

Leo blushed brightly, "Do what?"

Before the blonde could answer, other demigods started appearing out of the woods, headed by Clarisse, Jason, and Jake. Ace stood, quickly regaining his composure and glancing around for the flag, only to find that it had rolled into the stream when he fell. He grabbed it as they all stormed up.

Ebony walked out of the shadows and stood next to them and glared at Ace, "Ace!"

Ace stared at them, having the feeling that he'd messed up again, "What? I got the flag, I thought that was the point of this game..."

"Your capture doesn't count."

Before the blonde could argue, Clarisse stepped in, "And why the Hades wouldn't it count?"

Ebony placed a hand on the hilt of her sword, preparing for Clarisse to snap and charge her, "No one saw it."

"Leo was hanging right there!" Ace argued, before realizing he had yet to let the Hispanic boy down, "I should...get you down now..."

Leo nodded at him, "Yeah. You might want to do that."

Ebony looked at him, flames igniting in her eyes, "You need more than one person to count as proof."

Ace wasn't hearing her as he gently got Leo down, but Clarisse gripped her spear tighter, "No he doesn't. What do you think? The other team just walked it over? Nobody else passed here."

Jason stepped between, "There's no reason to fight."

Ebony glared at Clarisse, "It doesn't count."

Leo looked at Ace then at the girls, "Well, he did have the flag..."

Ebony turned to glare at him too, the flames in her eyes saying, "Stay out of it, Valdez!"

Ace brightened, "See? I had the flag!" He turned to Clarisse, asking softly, "Was I not suppose to get the flag?"

His aunt nodded, "You were suppose to get the flag, Ace. Besides, all the evidence points to a legal grab."

Ebony laughed, slightly amused by their ignorance "No. It wasn't"

It was Jake, former head of Hephaestus, who spoke up in Ebony's favor, "She does have a point, Clarisse, if nobody but Leo saw..."

"The point is, Leo saw, therefore its legal. Besides, how else would the flag have gotten over here if Ace didn't get it?" The brunette argued back.  
Ebony, starting to get annoyed, "Clarisse, no one else saw! Therefore it doesn't count!"

Ace watched the arguing awkwardly, "If its such a big deal, I'll just give Leo the flag back..." Which he tried to do. The flag itself had changed without anybody realizing; it was still solid red, but now in the center sat a boar's head in the shadow of a hammer.

Leo shook his head, "No. Keep it. It counts." He noticed Ebony glaring at him, "Ebony, is it really that big of a deal?" She didn't respond, the black flames in her eyes growing brighter.

Jason watched Ace fiddle with the fabric in his hands, before realizing the changed, "It changed, see? The flag wouldn't have changed if the catch was illegal."

Ebony clenched her jaw, "Whatever, Jason."

Ace still looked confused, turning to Leo, "So...it's my flag now?"

Leo nodded to him, "Sí."

The blonde smiled, "Cool. Now what?"

The kiss was still on Leo's mind as he gently pushed Ace through the woods, "We go talk."

"What?" Ace looked back at him questioningly, "Why do we have to talk?"

Leo stopped outside the Hephaestus cabin, whispering so nobody else heard, "Because you can't just kiss a guy like that and leave it hanging!"

The blonde blushed, looking down, "Oh that...My ADHD flared, and I didn't want to let you down yet!"

His words drove a kind of stake into Leo's chest, but he tried to push it out. Leo cupped his chin to make Ace look up into his eyes. The red pupils were flickering with bright flames that took Leo a minute to understand; lust. Ace was lying.

Leo kissed him, right out in the open. The blonde whimpered; his mind was saying no, but his body pressed closer to the Hispanic. This was more intense than the kiss from before as their lips opened together and their tongues rubbed together. As Ace moaned, Leo pulled back, "We shouldn't do this here...somebody might see."

The blonde pulled away from him awkwardly, rubbing the small of his own back, "Um, yeah. Yeah. I'll just...I'm gonna go back to the Mars cabin then."

Leo wrapped his arm around Ace's waist, trying to pull him back, "That is not what I meant, Ace, I meant that we go inside."

"Inside?" Ace muttered, looking back at Leo, "Inside can work."

The Hispanic pulled Ace along to the back of the cabin, and down into the workshop underneath. As soon as they were underground, Ace found his back pressed into the wall as Leo kissed him heatedly. Leo's hand rubbed the soft strip of skin showing between Ace's jeans and his bronze breastplate...No shirt? In reality, that just meant more skin and less work to get to it. His fingers slid teasingly along all of the tanned skin Leo could reach.

They jumped apart as the door they'd come in by, and Jason looked between them, "Is everything alright? You left...very quickly...after the game..."

"We're fine." Ace answered quickly, "Everything's okay."

Leo laughed nervously, "Yeah, we're great, Jason."

The younger blonde nodded slowly, heading back outside in a kind of confused daze. Neither of the boys moved for a minute before Leo moved to sit on the bed. Ace swallowed, looking away from him, "So you stay over there, and I'll stand here."

The Hispanic nodded, "That's...that's a good plan, but what else are we doing?"

"Well, we barely know each other..."

"We could play 20 Questions or something to get to know each other."

Ace nodded, leaning against the wall, "Yeah. That...that could work."

"Okay. You first." He smirked.

Sighing, Ace thought quickly, "Do you like it here?"

Leo thought for a moment, "Um, its good. It takes some getting used to."

Ace nodded slowly, "O-okay, your turn then?"

"Do you like it here?"

He didn't answer for a minute or two before shrugging, "It's okay...not much like home. I don't think most people like me being here."

Leo nodded, "I know what you mean".

"Kind of lonely..."

"Your turn" Leo smiled, again.

"Um...did something happen to your mom?" Ace wasn't looking at him, but focused on the floor.

Leo didn't answer for a long time. "I-I don't really want to talk about it"

He sounded kind of disappointed, "Oh, s-sorry."

"Let's just say Gaea got involved and now my mother is dead"

Ace nodded slowly, "Death sucks."

"What's New Rome and the campers like?"

It took him a minute to answer, "Well, the city is beautiful. I've yet to find a better place in the world...not that I've really seen anywhere else. The people are...mostly ignorant, self-centered, and bastards who are more focused on training then inter-personal relationships."

Leo stopped to think for moment before speaking, "Is it just me or does Ebony seem a little Roman?"

Ace raised an eyebrow, "Only a little?"

Leo sighed, "Okay. A lot."

"I kind of thought she was Roman."

"No. She's been here since she was ten."

Ace shrugged, "She doesn't like me."

"She's Greek. 100% Greek, she doesn't really accept anyone else who isn't...Which is funny because that sounds like a Roman thing..." He rubbed his chin.

"Lets stop talking about her." Ace suggested, "What do you do for fun?"

"Sorry." Leo paused to think for a moment. "Um, I work on the Argo II most of the day."

Nodding, Ace smiled slightly,"She's beautiful..."

"Thanks. That boat is my pride and joy." The blonde smiled just a little. Leo smiled back at him, "What about you? What do you do or fun?"

Again it took Ace awhile to answer, before muttering, "I don't. I train, build, sleep, and eat. What I have to do to survive. I do love building and training, but...I don't really know."

Leo looked at him for a moment before nodding slowly, "I get that."

Ace sat slowly, curled up against the wall. His eyes were back to their usual dull amber, but every time he glanced up from his hands to look at Leo a spark lit in the dark red, "Okay, um..."

Leo smiled at him, "Maybe that's enough for the day?"

The blonde looked mildly freaked out, "No, I...I don't want to leave."

Leo looked at him a moment before sighing and laying back on his bed, "Okay"

Ace bit his lower lip hard enough to make it bleed as he watched Leo. He made a soft whimpering noise as he saw the Hispanic boy's shirt rode up a bit, "M-maybe I...Maybe I should go..."

Leo put his hands behind his head and tilted his head to look at him, "If you want..." He smiled, "Or you could stay for a while longer..."

The demon-eyed boy stood shakily, his eyes focused on the strip of the other boy's stomach showing, "L-longer...?"

He shrugged, "Yeah. 'Lights Out' isn't for another fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes is only nine hundred seconds which really isn't that long." Ace answered, shyly walking towards the bed.

Leo, reached his hand out towards him, "It's long enough for me."

After a moment's hesitation, Ace crawled into bed with Leo. He rested one arm on the bed, the other hand on the boy's shoulder. It took him another few seconds to lean down, and kiss the hispanic boy. Leo kissed back heatedly and pulled Ace close. He needed more of him, he needed to be as close to him as possible.

Leo was warm to Ace's touch as he kissed deeper. His stomach clenched as he pressed down so that their chests brushed together. Leo gasped slightly, not accustomed to the fast paced beat of his heart that came from Ace's touch. He wrapped his arms around Ace and pulled him down, closer to him. The blonde's temperature started climbing as he moaned softly, blushing at the noise.

Suddenly, Leo pulled away panting heavily, "Ace..."

The blonde stood shakily, "I-I should go...Clarisse is...Sh-she'll be..."

Leo nodded, "Yeah. And I have to get the Cabin to bed."

"Y-yeah, n-night." Ace left quickly, running to the Ares cabin, and going straight to bed without talking to anybody.


	6. 6) Gael Hastings

Jacoby walked up to Gael and sat on his bed fifteen minutes before 'Lights Out'. "Hey"

Gael was writing in a journal, but looked up at him, "Hi. What's up?"

Jacoby nudged him, "How did it go with Ebony last night? Are you going to visit her again tonight?"

The older brother looked at him bizarrely, "I didn't say anything about going to see Ebony."

Jacoby laughed, "I know you didn't say anything, but I also know you well enough to know that you did go."

He shrugged, "I...convinced her to give the new Roman a chance, but that's about it."

Jacoby didn't looked convinced. "Anything else?" He raised an eyebrow, "Hmm?"

"Nope. That's about it."

"Are you going to her dreams again tonight?"

Gael thought for a minute before shrugging, "I don't know yet."

"You should. Hey, what do children of Hades dream about anyways? Is it all creepy and dark like people say?"

"Yeah. Lots of fighting and...stuff."

Jacoby laughed, "Really?"

"What else did you expect?"

"I thought it would be kind of funny if she had normal dreams, like ice cream or...or sex dreams. Can you imagine how awkward it would be if you walked into one of her sex dreams!" He laughed, "That would be so freaking funny!

"  
"Everybody has sex dreams, don't be a numbskull." Gael grumbled.

Jacoby raised an eyebrow at him. "Wait...have you had a sex dream about slash with her yet?"

"Okay, correction; everybody has sex dreams except me."

"And why not?"

"Its awkward injecting myself into somebody else's sex dream."

Jacoby just laughed at him, "I'll be waiting for the day you accidentally walk into one of her sex dreams."

Gael just rolled his eyes, "Its time for lights out."

Jacoby groaned and walked back to his bunk, tempted to follow Gael tonight into Ebony's dream. Meanwhile, Gael got the rest of the cabin to bed (the youngest being six) before flipping the lights off, and falling asleep.

Ebony's dream was unlike her other dreams lately. It was a nightmare she had at least once every few months, it started when she was just ten years old. They started a few nights after her mother left. Ebony was alone in the world, no one at school liked her, they all thought she was a freak and never talked to her. She had no existing family to take her in, her father was never around and her mother had left her. All of this happened to a poor little, ten year old girl. The entire time she was in the hands of Social Services, and the orphanage, she wanted to die. Anything seemed better to her than being stuck there. Those short months were the low points of her life and she was only ten, almost eleven.

The dream was always the same, she was walking, well, running down a hall of mirrors. In the mirrors on the left side was everything she hated about herself. Everything anyone ever picked on her for or said to her. There was a hideously ugly version of her and a severely overweight version. The right side was everything she wished she was. Tall, perfect hair, perfect curves, everything she or others wished to change about her.

Every turn she took would lead to a dead end, no matter what. Even if she tried to back rack her steps it still lead to a dead end. That was never what scared her though, getting lost and never finding the end never bothered her. It was what was at these dead ends that scared her.

At every dead end there was an image, so realistic it looked like she could reach out and touch it. These images were of her or her mother or father. But mostly of her, dying. The pictures often showed her dying very gruesomely. All of these images were thought of by her at all ages. All of these images were of ways she wished to kill herself or be most common picture displayed was a picture of her hanging by a rope with blood dripping down her arms into a small pool of the sticky liquid by her feet.

The worst part was, anytime she had a suicidal thought or idea or an issue about her body image, it showed up here, in her dream. Once every few months she would have this horrific dream and every time there was a new version or herself in the mirrors or a new image of her dying.  
One dead end was different though. As she turned the corner he was there like a painting on the wall. His dark hair hung slightly in his face, and his hazel eyes seemed to sparkle in a 'I know something you don't' way. Although he wore no shirt, his pants hung low on his hips while also being tight to his thighs. The son of Morpheus' lips matched his eyes in a minor smirk.

Ebony stopped dead in her tracks upon seeing him standing there. She was shocked and slowly began to back up. The last thing she wanted to see in this dream was Gael dying horribly. She couldn't speak, all she could do was try to regulate her breathing and back up. The tunnels had shifted, she was now pressed against a wall across from Gael. Another hallway formed in between them, creating a T shape.

Gael's muscles flexed, and his smirk turned into a smile. He had no way of knowing what he was about to step out into, but as always he took the plunge. His feet were bare as he stepped out off the wall, and into the hallway. It took less then a second for him to see around them, and seeing how freaked out Ebony was. He stepped closer to her, "Ebony..."

Ebony put her hands in front of her and pressed closer to the wall. She cringed, "G-Gael...Is it actually you?" Her hands were shaking and her breath came in ragged gasps.

Gently, he held her hands. After a second's pause, he kissed each of her palms, "Of course it's actually me. There's no need to scared now."

The scene around them changed back to her last dream he'd come to. The 1950's ice cream parlor, but it was empty this time. Just the two of them.

Ebony sat on a chair, her breath slowly returning to normal and her shaking stopped. But tears still silently rolled down her face, "Th-Thanks."

He went behind the counter, and started making her a sundae, "Of course. They were all lies you know. The mirrors, and whatever."

She shook her head, "I...Yeah...I know..." She looked at the ice cream, "I don't want any..."

"It'll make you feel better." He pressed, "And I can tell...you think they're true."

"After hearing something over and over and over again about yourself you start to believe it and it becomes the truth to you." She looked down and dug her fingernails into her arm under the counter.

Gael set the sundae in front of her before going around, and gently pulling her arms apart, "Maybe they used to be true, but not anymore."

Ebony ignored the sundae and refused to look at him, "I guess." She looked up at him, "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

He sighed, letting go, "Okay, what do you want to see tonight?"

She shrugged and said, "Surprise me." She forced a half-smile.

Nodding, he took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. The scene shimmered around them, and changed again. This time, they stood in a small kitchen. Gael smiled, letting go of her. The whole room had a vacant empty feeling, with its spotless wooden cabinets.

Ebony looked around the room, "Where are we?"

"A farm...in New Mexico." He rubbed his arm awkwardly, sitting down at the table.

Ebony sat across from him at the table, "Your house?"

Gael sighed, and nodded, "Yeah, before I came to camp."

Ebony stood and began exploring the room and house. He just watched her while she explored with rustic house. The kitchen connected to a living room that held a similar design style with wooden furniture, mounted hunting trophies, and a Native American styled rug and pillows. That lead to a hallway with a bedroom at each end.

Ebony walked into the bedroom at the end of the hall. The bedroom she entered was the only room in the house that was styled differently with walls of light blue with dream clouds painted on. There was a bookshelf and desk on one wall, both wooden and covered in books and notebooks with a few movies tossed in. The canopy bed had a white sheen canopy, and dull red sheets with a poppy flower painted white on the pillowcase. She walked to the bookshelf and started looking at some of the books. Ebony pulled one off the shelf and began to read the back cover.

After a minute, Gael wandered up to lean against the doorframe, "Found my bedroom then?" He nodded at the books, "Their mostly dream theories."

Ebony looked up and fumbled to put the book back on the shelf, "Hey. Sorry-I was just..." She gestured towards the books and blushed.

"Its fine." He shrugged.

She picked up another book, "You sure?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" He asked, walking over to the bed to sit down.

Ebony followed him and sat on his bed, leaning against the wall, "I don't know...Nevermind."

Gael reached up, running his fingers over the sheen canopy, "I like coming here..." Ebony smiled, situated herself on his bed so she was comfortable, then opened the book she pulled from his shelf. She glanced up at him as she turned a page.

"Camp has never been home. Its nice and all...but this is where I belong. Once I'm eighteen, I'm coming back."

"Really? I wish I could leave Camp but being a child of Hades, it'll be impossible for me to have a normal life. Being a child of the Big Three sucks. As soon as I step out of the Camp boundaries every monster within a 100 mile radius will try and kill me."

Gael shrugged, "You could figure out a way. If you really wanted to."

Ebony sighed, "I don't know if it would be worth it though."

He shrugged, looking completely content there, "Whatever."

Ebony closed the book and looked at him for a moment, "Thanks for taking me here."

Gael stopped looking up in favor of turning to her, "Why? It was completely selfish reasons."

She laughed, "Oh really? What 'selfish reasons' did you have?"

"I wanted to come home." He answered instantly, "Visiting here using other people's dreams is the only way for me to come here except for over Christmas."

"Oh." She said quietly under her breath, "That's not what I was expecting..."

"What were you expecting then?"

"This." She put the book down next to her and leaned over slightly, "Is what I was expecting." She kissed him lightly on the lips. It took him by surprise but after a second, he kissed back and gently cupped her pulled back and smiled at him.

"That...That may have been part of the plan, but...not here...eventually." He was clearly thrown off by the kiss, and flustered.

Her smiled faded slightly, "Sorry...I mean, if you didn't want to kiss here..."

Gael stood, offering her a hand, "I'll show you."

She took his hand and stood, smiling. "Okay."

He pulled her through the house, and out the back door. Their fingers linked together, he raced them through the garden out to the desert. He slowed as they approached a large rock formation that created a shadow where they stood, "Here."

Ebony pulled him closer, "Okay." She kissed him softly. He kissed back instantly this time, arms going around her waist to pull her closer. Ebony wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him even closer.

After a minute, Gael pulled away to sit in the shadow. He gently grabbed her wrists, pulling her down into his lap to kiss her again.

She smiled as she was pulled into his lap. Ebony kissed him back heatedly before pulling back to look at him, "We should wake up soon..."

"Yeah...we should." He muttered, before kissing her again.

Ebony kissed back sweetly then pulled away smiling. A moment later she woke up in her bunk smiling to herself.


	7. 7) Ace Kindle

Ace hadn't slept. He'd waited for the Ares campers to fall asleep before sneaking out to the Argo II. Whenever he found it hard to sleep back home, he'd work on a project down in the shop. Why should here be any different? He spent all night working on perfecting the trajectory of his catapult.

Leo walked into the room and saw someone working at the table. Slowly and quietly he closed the door behind him. When he realized it was Ace his heart skipped a beat, his pulse quickened, and his palms became sweaty. "Ace?"

The blonde didn't looked up, hearing Leo's voice was bad enough right now seeing him would be ten times harder to resist, "Hey."

Leo smiled and walked up behind him, wrapping his arms around his waist, "What are you doing up so early?"

Ace stiffened slightly in his grip before melting into it shyly, "E-early?"

Leo kissed his neck, biting softly, "Yeah. Its five thirty in the morning."

The bite made Ace gasp, "N-no...It...It was midnight last time I looked..."

"Its five thirty. You've been here since midnight?"

"No, I've been here since eleven..."

"Why?"

Ace shrugged, moving out of Leo's grip to grab a wrench, "Couldn't sleep. I have too much to think about."

Leo pulled him closer and kissed him, "Like what?"

The other boy looked down, but didn't move away from Leo, "That."

Leo pulled away quickly, "Sorry."

"No, I like it! It's just..." Ace sighed, moving closer to Leo again, "I was trying to figure out if the liking it outweighs how much my father would kill me for it..."

"Really?"

The blonde blushed before nodding slowly, "I think...I think liking it wins."

Leo smiled, "Good." He kissed him again. Ace kissed back this time eagerly, his arms wrapping around Leo's neck. Leo puts his hands on Ace's hips and pulled him closer.

Ace pulled away a little, blushing, "I-I haven't...I've never had a...before."

"What do you mean?"

His blush deepened, "A...A whatever you are! Whatever we are! This is!" Leo kissed him again heatedly. The other boy kissed back, trying to return the heat. Leo moaned against the kiss and pulled him closer.

Ace blushed even deeper, his ears going red, at the sound Leo made. It was a nice sound, but he was clueless to what it meant or how to make the Latino make it again. Leo's hand ran along Ace's chest then ran it under his shirt. Ace's chest felt warm against his hand.

The blonde pulled away, shaking his head, "No...no..."

Leo looked down and put his hands in his pockets, "Sorry."

The hurt expression on the other boy's face made Ace regret his decision instantly...the touch had felt good. It wasn't right for somebody to look that beautifully crestfallen. He cupped Leo's chin, making him look up again, "Its just...too fast, Bello."

Leo nodded, "I understand."

Ace hugged him, his breathing shallow and his arm trembling. Leo's warmth both calmed it, and made him more nervous and freaked out. This feeling of wanting closeness was too intense. He sighed, before shyly running his fingers under Leo's shirt, and kissing his neck.

The hispanic pulled away, "What happened to too fast?"

"Decided I'm too horny to wait...unless you don't want me anymore..." The blonde looked away from Leo, a soft blush playing on his cheeks, and his red eyes suddenly shining with uncertainty.

That image pulled at Leo's heart strings. He finally got somebody attractive to want him...Leo had no clue how, but he was not about to let this boy go anytime soon. Ace felt Leo's arm go tightly around his waist, and pull him closer as Leo whispered in his ear, "I definitely want you."

Ace's back hit the workbench he'd been working on in Bunker Nine as Leo kissed him deeply. His hands that were already under Leo's shirt tightened their grip so his nails dug in some, but Leo didn't care. He wouldn't care if Ace pulled his hair out as long as he could remember these moments.

"Wouldn't this be easier on a flat surface?" Ace asked, pulling centimeters away from Leo's lips, "You know...vertical rather than horizontal?"

Leo spread his arms, "There's lots of horizontal surfaces here. Pick one."

It took the blonde a moment to realize he meant there in Bunker Nine, but Ace shrugged it off. He was really too horny to go anywhere else. Instead, he grabbed Leo's hand to pull him deeper into the rooms. There was no way he could get it on with the door right there, and anybody could walk in on them. By the time Ace stopped in a large room that was mostly empty, Leo was grinding against his ass.

"Did you really have to pick a surface so far away?" The hispanic complained, "There were plenty of good ones right there."

Ace laughed, "You're eager. I just didn't want anybody walking in, and ruining it. After all, you only lose your virginity once."

That comment made Leo stop for a minute. Virginity. For some reason he'd always thought Ace was experienced. Maybe because he was breathtaking to Leo, or he just had that air about him. Either way, the idea made him giddy.

"Yeah, you do..." He smiled as Ace lay down on the floor. His blonde hair splayed out around his head sunrays. That camp shirt had to be a size too small with how it was riding up to show some of his tanned abs. His jeans hugged low on his hips so Leo could see how his skin was taut over his hip bones.

"Are you just going to stand there, or are we going to play?" Ace asked, one perfect eyebrow raised.

Leo growled softly, getting on top of him, and whispering in his ear, "Oh, we're going to do more than just playing."

The blonde smiled, and sat up. He made sure Leo was watching before pulling his shirt off. They kissed again, deep and passionate only to pull apart as Ace pulled Leo's shirt off. Their chests rubbed together, making the two moan in unison.

There was tension building up in Leo's groin as his hands slipped down to Ace's pants. At least he knew that area of the blonde was working as there was a large bulge in the boy's jeans. Ace whined as the latino's hand brushed it, "Leo, come on!"

"Well, you're eager." Leo laughed softly, pulling Ace's pants down. Before he ever realized what was happening, Leo found his jeans off with Ace's hands already slipping into his boxer briefs, "A-ace...Ah!"

His hands were warm pressed against Leo's already hot skin. The latino was trying his best to keep from bursting into flame, but the way Ace was moving his hand along his Leo's member was making that particularly hard to manage.

"Your hair is smoking." Ace muttered softly, blushing.

"Oh, shit." Leo pulled away, patting his hair out. His embarrassment was clear, but Ace just smiled at him. The blonde closed the distance between them again to kiss him, and press their hips together. The hispanic boy moaned as their clothed cocks brushed together.

Ace winked, his confidence slowly growing. He kept their hips together as he slipped his fingers into each of their underwears to push them down together. Inch by inch the skin was revealed, and instantly pressed together making both boys moan loudly as the infuriating cloth finally hit the floor.

Leo found himself searching for some sign of imperfection on the boy, but there was nothing. Ace was tanned with lean muscles, his lightly defined abs had sweat glistening on them, thin soccer player like legs, and in between...well, that seemed perfect too; hard and leaking pre-cum.

"Bello?" Ace asked softly, pulling Leo out of his trance, "Are you okay?"

He laughed, "You're perfect."

Ace didn't get the chance to answer before Leo was kissing him again, and pressing him into the cement floor. They moved in unison with their hips grinding together both moaning. The blonde pulled back, panting beautifully in Leo's mind, "We need lube."

The hispanic reached for his magic tool belt, praying to every god and goddess he knew of that it would contain what they needed. Thankfully, his hand withdrew with a bottle of regular clear lube. Both boys smiled in relief as Ace lay back, spreading his long legs wide.

Again, Leo got distracted. The imagine beneath him was perfection. Ace was flushed, and panting. Desperation had finally found it's way into his eyes, flames flashing with longing behind his ashy eyes. Leo's eyes traced down Ace's body to between his legs.

"Bello, come on!" Ace cried out, pulling at Leo's hands, "Don't just stare at me!"

Leo laughed softly, before using some of the lube to press a finger into the blonde's hole. The moan that followed just encouraged the hispanic to press in deeper, give him more. Ace's fingers tried to claw into the cement beneath him, but they just slid, his moans steadily got louder, "Come on, Bello!"

"We have to wait." Leo shook his head, "You need proper preparation or it'll hurt a lot."

Ace nodded, but reached towards Leo with one hand to rub his cock in the hope that he'd make the other boy hurry up. It seemed to work as he pressed another finger into the boy beneath him. The fast pace of his hand made Leo jumpy, and he knew he was going too fast but in that moment it didn't matter. The blonde was just as eager after all.

Leo pulled out which lead to Ace making a very undignified whining noise. It didn't discourage the hispanic though as he slowly pressed into the warmth. The feeling almost made him want to explode. Ace had closed his eyes, hands moving to grip at Leo's shoulder and side tight enough to bruise but the blonde wasn't telling him to stop so Leo kept pushing in slowly.

They stopped fully connected with their faces inches apart, both panting. After a minute like that, Ace whined, "Move, Bello! More!"

The comment made Leo smirk. There was no way he could refuse that plea. Leo started moving slowly which made Ace whine, "More please!"

His moan of pleasure echoed around the room as Leo did what he asked . Their bodies moved together in thrusts of passion. Before long, both boys were moaning heatedly. Sweat shone on their skin as they pressed even closer.

"Come on, Leo, more! Harder!" Ace screamed in pleasure, "There! Right there! More!"

Something clicked in Leo's mind at that, and he moved harder while trying to focus on hitting that spot with every thrust. He didn't have a constant pace which was even more pleasurable torture for the blonde. All too soon for both of them, Leo started pumping Ace as he reached his peak. The blonde moaned even louder as Leo pumped him fast.

"I-I...Bello!" Ace whined as he came in Leo's hand. Both boys were slow to come down from the orgasmic bliss, but gradually Ace lay flat on the cement again. Leo lay down next to him, and after a minute of awkward silent the blonde turned on his side to cuddle into the latino.

"Memorable?" Leo muttered into the silence.

Ace smiled and kissed him gently, "Very."

They basked together in the post-orgasmic bliss happily. Ace had his eyes closed from pure exhaustion with his arm around Leo's waist. The tattoo seemed to shine accusingly at the Greek. The Roman tattoo; SPQR with laurel wreaths, seven lines like a barcode, and a symbol it took Leo a minute to recognize. It was a 'female' sign with a circle, and a downward line that had another line to create an upside down cross.

Leo had lost track of time, but it couldn't have been very long before Ace sat up, "I should go to bed before I fall asleep on top of you."

"Or you could fall asleep on top of me."

His comment made Ace laugh but shake his head, "No I should go to my bed. I'll come back later this afternoon."

"We can go to the campfire together tonight." Leo offered, "I mean...together, but the others don't have to know it's together if you don't-"

He was stopped by Ace's lips on his. The kiss was soft and gentle, but it made Leo smile brightly. The blonde winked, "Sounds great."

They got dressed in silence, and Leo lead the way outside of Bunker Nine. Ace kissed him once more in the woods before making his way back to the cabins. Instead of going into the Ares cabin like he's suppose to, Ace wandered over to under the Hephaestus cabin. Leo's bed was more comfortable...warmer...


	8. 8) Gael Hastings

The usual stress of making sure the Morpheus cabin got up was always tiring. It really would be much easier for everybody involved if they could all just sleep constantly, but Chiron had vetoed that. Gael flicked the lights on, calling out, "Rise and shine! The sun's up on Long Island, and so are we supposed to be!"

Jacoby lazily kicked off his covers groaning, "Gael, remind me to kill you later."

The older boy smiled slightly, "I'd rather be sleeping too."

Once the campers were up and out the door, he stood and made his bed, "How was your sleep? Any interesting dreams?"

Gael shrugged, "Nothing out of the usual. Broke up a nightmare, visited home."

Jacoby was unsure how to talk to Gael about his dream. "Um...Gael?"

"What's up?"

"Never mind. Let's go." he headed out the door to breakfast.

Gael followed him, "Did something happen last night?"

"Nothing. I mean, I was in Ebony's dream and it was freakin' weird."

He grabbed Jacoby's arm, turning him around with his voice close to a growl, "You what?"

Jacoby shook him off, "I was in her dream last night."

"Elaborate."

He threw his hands in the air, "What is there to elaborate on?" He sat at the Morpheus table, waiting for breakfast.

"You were in her dream?" Gael asked sitting across from him, "I didn't see you or anything."

"I was hidden. I saw all of it and it was freaking creepy as Hades!"

"When did you start going into dreams?"

"Last night."

The older brother sighed, time for damage control, "What all did you see?"

Jacoby paused for a moment, "All of it. Well, I saw up until you changed the dream. Then I ended up in someone else's dream."

"Okay, we need to start teaching you how to control this right away. Ebony's going to kill you for seeing that."

"She's not going to find out." Jacoby swallowed hard when Ebony walked over. "Right?"

Gael ignored the question, putting an arm around her waist, "Good morning."

She sat on his lap, "Hi."

Jacoby looked at her, "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at the Hades table?"

Ebony glared him, "You're right." She walked back to her own table and sat down.

Gael groaned, his forehead hitting the table, "Why did you have to do that?"

"I did that so I can try and get you to promise to not say anything!"

"And you couldn't have waited another minute?" Gael growled, "I-I...and we...and kisses!"

"Dude. Calm down."

Gael sighed, "Okay, today we're doing a crash course on how to handle dreams. Right now, I'm going to go kiss my girlfriend good morning."

He got up, and glanced at Chiron's empty seat before leaning next to Ebony, "So...Hi."

"Hi."

Gael glanced at the head table again before sitting down, holding her hand under the table, and kisses her cheek, "You okay?"

"I'm fine. It's just, Jacoby seems to be extra douchie this morning."

He shrugged, "He gets that way. He threatened to kill me this morning for waking him up..."

"Okay." She paused for a moment, "I forgot to tell you good morning..." Ebony leaned in and kissed him gently.

Gael laughed softly, kissing her again a little less gently, but still sweet, "Good morning."

Ebony smiled and pulled back, "Good morning." She kissed him again, this time with a little more hunger behind it.

"So...I'm going to be busy most of the day with son of Morpheus stuff, but I was hoping that we could sit together at the fire tonight in order to be one of those sickly annoyingly cute couples that...I don't know, feed each other s'mores or something..." By the end he was looking down at the table instead of her face.

Ebony smiled, "Sounds good to me." She put her hand on the side of his face and lifted it to look at her.

Gael smiled, and kissed her again before standing up, "I should get back to my table before Chiron shows up, and yells at me..."

She pouted slightly, "Okay."

He leaned down to kiss her heatedly, before heading back to his table, grabbing a plate of waffles on his way. Ebony watched as he walked away, glancing at his ass before grabbing a plate of food for herself.

Jacoby looked at Gael as he sat down, "Happy? You got your kiss."

Gael smiled dreamily, "I got five...I'm very happy"

Jacoby felt ready to slap the dreamy look off his face, "Are you going to say anything to her about the dream?"

"I won't tell her as long as you swear that once we have this stuff under control you stay away from her dreams, and that you don't tell anybody about what you saw."

"Sure. Whatever."

Gael didn't let up, "Swear, on the river Styx."

Jacoby groaned, "Yeah, yeah, yeah...River Styx. Whatever. I'm hungry." He went to grab a plate of waffles.

"Okay, okay. Eat, and then we'll practice." Gael took a bite of his waffles.

Ebony looked over and smiled at him then glared at Jacoby.

Jacoby noticed her glaring at him and nudged Gael, "What's her problem?"

The older brother noticed her glare, and shrugged, "No idea."

Jacoby shrugged as he finished the last waffle, "Well, I'm done." He stood. "See ya later bro." With that, he picked up his plate and left.

Instead of finishing, Gael stood in order to stalk after Jacoby, "Oh, no you don't! You are getting some practice in now."

Jacoby groaned and headed to the cabin, "Fine."

Once there, Gael sat on his bed, "Okay, so...you can pick who's dream you'll go into by focusing on them. Otherwise you'll just end up in some random dream." Jacoby lay down and focused on the first person he thought of, Clovis.

Once his brother was asleep, Gael closed his eyes, and focused on Jacoby to easily join him in Clovis' dream. They stood in the entryway of a house where they could easily see into the dining room where a feast was splayed out with the son of Hypnos eating there happily.

Gael sighed as he watched Clovis digging into the food, "Okay, um...to change something you just have to focus on it, then what you want it to change too."

"Really?" Jacoby decided to focus on the beach at sunset.

Suddenly the scene changed to the beach, the sky over the sun was covered in color. A few seagulls glided just above the breakers. Jacoby took the scene in then look towards Gael.

The older male looked apologetically at the very confused Clovis who was now spitting sand out of his mouth, "That's not exactly what I meant, but good."

Jacoby laughed. "Sorry Clovis."

"What are you two doing?" the son of Hypnos asked the two sons of Morpheus.

"I am instructing Jacoby on how to control dream jumping, and figured you were asleep. Sorry about messing with it." Gael answered with a slight smile that calmed the other boy down.

Jacoby put up his hands, "Wait. Wait, I'll put you back in your other dream." Focuses on Clovis's first dream. They were back in the room with the food, but something felt off. He couldn't place his finger on it but something was different about this dream. Jacoby shrugged the feeling off.

Gael could feel it too and recognized the feeling, but Clovis was oblivious as he went back to the table. The eldest shook his head, "Clovis don't."

But he was too late. As Clovis neared the table, the innocent looking turkey jumped up growling from the wrong end. Something that would normally be funny, but there was no time to laugh as the side dishes hopped to attention. Individual peas jumped off the table to swarm around the three boys' legs, a wad of mashed potatoes barely missed Jacoby's head, and the gravy bowl started levitating towards Gael while the green bean casserole formed itself into a catapult to chuck scoops of mac'n'cheese at Clovis.

Jacoby cursed and held up a plate as a shield, "What in the Hades?!"

The older brother grabbed the carving knife off the table in an attempt to avoid attack long enough to fix everything, "You weren't specific enough in what you wanted, and turned it into a nightmare!"

"Well!," He hit the turkey and the plated smashed, "How do I fix it?!"

"Um..." Gael hadn't dealt with something like this in a while. He noticed the green bean catapult preparing to throw a knife at Clovis. The mild change of something wasn't hard so it didn't take him a lot of focus to make one of the wall curtains grab the son of Hypnos, and pull him to safety, "I'm thinking!"

"Think faster!"

Gael jumped onto the table, cutting the turkey as it flew at him, "Just keep them distracted! I'll fix it!"

"Okay. Okay." Jacoby began throwing butter knives at the green beans in an attempt to destroy the catapult. Meanwhile, Gael closed his eyes to calm down his nerves while focusing on the feast again, but this time calm like it had been when they first got there with Clovis eating happily. A minute later, the room reflected that. He opened his eyes again, and sighed softly in relief. Jacoby dropped his knives on the table and sighed.

Gael jumped down, putting his knife down next to his brother's, "You just have to picture everything perfect with exact details."

"Okay. Got it." He nodded. "Can we wake up now?"

"Yeah, sure. It's almost lunch time anyway." Gael muttered, before waking himself up.

Jacoby awoke in his bunk, "Well, that was...scary..."

He shrugged, standing and stretching, "It can be."


	9. 9) Clarisse La Rue

For once, Clarisse was excited for the campfire that night. She'd taken the new Roman, Ace, under her wing, and he'd managed to wiggle his way out of all the other campfires since he first came to camp. But not tonight. Oh no, she was making sure the little blonde came.

When she brought it up at dinner that night, Ace just looked at her for a minute before shrugged, "I was planning on going. Leo asked if I would sit with him."

She watched as people filed in around the firepit. Ace next to her seemed even more twitchy than usual. When Leo joined them as the benches filled. His normal lopsided smile aimed at the blonde. Ace had a light blush on his cheeks. Was something going on with them? It wouldn't surprise Clarisse.

Gael pulled at Ebony's hand as they raced for the arena, "Come on. All the seats will be full!" Ebony laughed as he pulled her into the arena.

Leo stopped as they raced past him, "Wow. Someone is in a hurry." Once they passed him he headed toward Ace, smiling.

Gael sighed as they took the last two spots, on Clarisse's other side than Leo and Ace. He put his arm around Ebony's shoulders, "Made it."

The blonde smiled back at Leo, picking at a marshmallow, and avoiding Clarisse's gaze. He didn't need her figuring out what made him miss breakfast that morning.

Ebony laughed and kissed his cheek, "Happy?"

Leo took Ace's hand in between them so no one could see what was going on. Then he smiled at Ace, "I feel like I haven't seen you all day."

The blonde blushed, but didn't pull his hand away, "That's ridiculous. We spent all morning together, and I came to you after a slept a couple hours to spend even more time together."

Gael laughed happily, and kissed her deeply, "Happier now."

Leo laughed, "I know, but it still doesn't seem like enough time together."

Ebony smiled and put one of her legs on his knee, "Good."

He smiled, and started toasting a marshmallow with one hand while his other rubbed one of her legs. On the other side of Clarisse, Ace blushed so deep half his face turned bright red. He whispered to Leo, "What if we...spend the night working on the Argo II together?"

Ebony smiled and grabbed his marshmallow when it was done toasting, "Thanks." She giggled slightly and kissed him, gooey marshmallow sticking to his lips.

Leo smiled brightly, "Sounds great."

"I was making you a s'more." Gael pointed out, rolling his eyes.

The blonde smiled brightly, before taking a bite of his marshmallow, some of it sticking to the corner of his mouth not very innocently.

"Well, I'll take marshmallow kisses over anything." She laughed again and kissed him.

Leo stared at the spot on his lips, "You...you...have...something..."He pointed to the corner of his own mouth.

The son of Morpheus kissed back eagerly, while Clarisse watched Ace go to wipe the white from his mouth but he ended up going for the wrong side. Ebony picked up another marshmallow and started toasting it.

Leo, "No...You missed...Let me..." Carefully he raised his hand to wipe it off then stopped. "Screw this." He leaned in and kissed the spot to get rid of the speck of marshmallow.

Ace gasped, more shocked by that since they were where anybody could see than the action itself. The action only confirmed what Clarisse already suspected about the two boys; a new couple. Gael leaned back to watch his girlfriend.

Ebony finished toasting the marshmallow, stacked on a chocolate piece in between two Graham Crackers and fed it to Gael, "Just like you wanted. We're being cute and feeding each other s'mores." She smiled.

Leo pulled back quickly, "S-sorry."

The blonde looked away from him, but tightened his grip on Leo's hand, "Just surprised is all...I-its okay."

Gael laughed, his response coming out garbled through his bite, "Yes, we are. Thank you."

Leo smiled at Ace, thanking the gods that he didn't mind the kiss. "Good."

Ebony smiled and whispered in his ear, "I'm just waiting for Clarisse or someone else to complain." Then she kissed his earlobe and bit it softly.

He laughed, and shook his head, "They won't. People do this all the time."

Ace noticed Leo's reaction, and carefully cupped his chin to make him look up. He gazed at Leo's brown eyes with his flaming red ones for a minute, before kissing him. The kiss itself was innocent, but he did his best to push as much passion as he could into it. He wanted Leo to understand that he wanted this to be real.

Ebony smiled, "Whatever you say." The 'say' came out in a sing-songy tone.

Leo kissed back, equally passionate. He couldn't get close enough to Ace, he wanted more of him but had to force his hands to stay where they were. Something told him that groping Ace in public wouldn't exactly be the best idea. Ace thought about pressing closer, about moving into Leo's warmth and not caring who saw what. He didn't though. Instead, he pulled away, and shyly offered Leo part of a chocolate bar.

Gael laughed, and started toasting another marshmallow. Ebony smiled and stole it from the stick, shoving the entire thing in her mouth, "Yummy." She looked at him and couldn't stop laughing at the fake disappointment on his face. "Thanks."

Leo kissed Ace again, this time using some tongue. His hand slowly moved to his crotch. He needed to feel Ace! He needed to get closer! Leo pulled Ace into his lap, not breaking the kiss.

Clarisse rolled her eyes, and stood up. She was tired of mooney couples. Since Chris had left for college, everything romantic sickened her. So, she made her way out of the throng. She could get a little training in before lights out, and nobody would be the wiser.

As she made her way towards the sparring arena, something caught her eye at the crest of Half-Blood Hill. It was just a shadow, and was gone when she looked back. But no, something had been there. The sounds of happy, singing campers echoed behind her. She could just go back, and tell Chiron, but Clarisse the daughter of Ares raising a false alarm? Never.

So she ran towards the hill, pulling her spear out as she went as silently as she could. As she reached the crest, she dropped to the ground to crawl the last few feet. On the other side, she could see a mass of shapes gathered there.

"They've got to be around here somewhere, mama." One of the large shapes was saying, a male by the voice.

There was a hissing voice that spoke up next, "The smell is very strong. Like one's just over the hill."

Clarisse retreated quickly. They were monsters for sure, but they didn't know exactly where the camp was. That had to be something. She thought for less then a second before running back to the campfire, and right up to Chiron. She tried to keep the other campers from hearing, but several closest to them, including Jason, overheard her words to the centaur, "Monsters. A small group. Just outside the boundaries. They're looking for us."

Chiron kept all emotion out of his voice, "Clarisse, how small is 'small'?"

She tried to calm her breathing, "I don't know. It was dark. Definitely a couple dozen at least."

"Alright. We aren't going to need everyone. Take a few people to go and attack them and I will get the rest to stay here on defense."

Clarisse nodded, and turned to go, but Jason grabbed her arm, "Let me help, Clarisse."

She stared at him for a few seconds before nodding, "Grab Ace, Gael, and Ebony. I'll get some of my siblings, and we'll meet by the hill."

Jason nodded, and raced over to the two couples, "I hate to break it up, but Clarisse needs us. Leo, stay here and try to keep from getting hurt."

The older blonde stood quickly, blushing about being so involved with Leo in front of everybody, but he tried to push it away, "What's going on?"

Ebony walked up already strapping on some armor, "There's a small group of monsters heading for camp. You, me, Gael, Jason, Clarisse and a few other kids from Ares are going to meet them halfway while Chiron stays here with the others to run defense."

Gael nodded and stood, unhooking his daggars from his charm bracelet. Ace stared at them for a few seconds before nodding slowly. He leaned down, and kissed Leo sweetly, "Do me a favor, and don't die or get hurt or anything."

Leo nodded, "I'll try my best." He kissed back. "Please stay safe too."

Clarisse stood with hands on her hips, "Alright. Enough wishy-washy lover stuff. We have some ass to kick." She turned and headed for the camp boundaries.

"Coming, Auntie Clarisse!" Ace called before kissing Leo lightly one more time, "Promise."

He raced off to join the mini-army. Jason smiled at him as they marched together in perfect unison. The only two of the group.


	10. 10) Ebony Blake

Ebony woke in the infirmary, it was the middle of the day. Campers were outside running around, satyrs were coming and going and the sun was shining. She looked around the infirmary, there was a curtain up on either side of her and Gael was pacing nervously in front of her. "G-Gael?" Her head hurt and she couldn't remember a whole lot. Only bits and pieces of what she assumed was last night.

He looked over at her, and sighed in relief, "Thank the gods. We were starting to think...but you're up now."

Gael smiled brightly, and moved over to kiss her forehead. There were a few scratches on his cheeks and arms, but he mostly looked alright, "How do you feel?"

"My head hurts...Wait, what were you starting to think?"

"Babe, you've been out for two days. I-I..." He swallowed nervously, "I couldn't get into your dreams or anything..."

"Two days?! What...? What happened?"

Suddenly, it was like time froze. Her gaze fixated on one corner of the room as she was sucked into the memory. It was moments before the battle, the monsters were approaching and there was a knot in the pit of her stomach. She glanced at Gael as he smiled reassuringly at her.

Together the small, but capable, group charged into the group of monsters. Ebony slashed at several monsters turning them into dust. But as soon as the dust fell they reformed. Someone, she assumed was Jason called out from her left side, "Scatter the ashes so they can't reform!"

But, as soon as she was sucked into the memory she was pulled back to the present. She blinked and looked around the infirmary. Gael and Chiron were standing over her bed nervously watching her.

"There was a battle...? I remember charging...and the monsters kept reforming..."

Gael leaned over, looking into her eyes curiously, "Don't push to remember."

Ebony looked back at him, "I have to remember, Gael! Unless you'd like to tell me what happened and how I ended up here." Her mood fluctuated rapidly, taking her from the calm when she woke up to suddenly angry.

He sighed, "Just don't push. Let them come naturally."

She leaned her head back in the pillow and covered her eyes with her hands, frustrated. She remembered taking Jason's advice. Every time she cut down a monster she scattered the ashes as best she could before another monster attacked her. She looked to her right and saw Gael running through a telekhine with his blades. An empusa ran up to her screaming bloody murder. Quite literally. Ebony raised her sword and attacked. The empusa slashed at her leg, Ebony felt blood start to seep through her jeans. Suddenly angry she slashed, blocked, and parried the empusa's attack. The empusa turned to ashes.

Not even a second later Ebony was blindsided by a cyclops. The force caused her to fall onto her side, explaining the sore hip and bruises on the left side of her body. Her sword flew from her hand, her head hit the ground with such power that she passed out seconds after it happened.

She remembered the cyclops going in for the kill. There was a blur of skin and clothing, she couldn't remember the face. Then the cyclops turned to dust. Someone, she thought it was Leo, called out, "Help! Ace is down!" Suddenly everything went black.

Ebony was pulled out of the memory and back into the infirmary, "Who saved me?"

Gael knew she wouldn't like the answer, and looked away as he muttered, "Ace was closest. He ran up, and stabbed the cyclops right in her eye, then moved you away from the fighting so you wouldn't get hurt anymore."

Ebony couldn't believe it. After all the shit she put him through, all the arguing and he still saved her, "Really? Where is he?"

Again, Gael wouldn't meet her eyes, "He got banged up pretty bad, and refused nectar and ambrosia..."

Ebony kicked off the blanket and tried to sit up. The motion caused blood to rush to her head and her vision blurred and darkened. "I-" She rubbed her eyes, "I have to talk to him."

"What you need is to rest." Gael insisted, moving her gently back into a laying position.

The door to the infirmary opened, and the boy in question's voice echoed through the room, "Hey, Chiron?"

"At Ebony's bed." Their mentor answered.

The blonde appeared there in seconds, like he'd been there several times in the past two days. His camp shirt had blood covering the chest and there was some on his hands, but otherwise he looked fine. When he saw Ebony awake, he seemed to forget he was covered in blood since he moved over to her bedside, "You're up! How are you feeling? Is everything okay?"

Ebony smiled at him, "Yeah. I'm fine. What about you? You're bleeding...And you also saved me..."

Ace looked down, remembering the blood, "Oh yeah...the stitches broke again." He blushed, "And yeah...I guess I did."

"Thanks, I owe ya one. And, you should really get those stitches fixed..."

Chiron already had the supplies, and had pulled one of the curtains open so Ace could sit on the bed next to her, and they could still talk. Ace pulled his shirt off slowly, wincing slightly, before sitting on the bed and lifting his left arm. That entire side was bloody with a large, deep gash running along it as the hub. It almost looked like his spine had been moved to his left side then ripped out from the top of his chest to right above his jeans.

Ace acted like it as nothing. As Chiron started cleaning up the blood, the blonde looked at Ebony, "You don't owe me anything. Soldiers fight to protect each other just as much as their lands."

Eb smiled, "Thanks, Ace." She was so grateful to Ace for saving her life, yet why was she somewhat disappointed? Because it wasn't Gael who saved her, thats why.

He looked down at his wound before muttering, "We could...I don't know...be friends or something..." The idea embarrassed him, and he blushed, "I-I mean...the only people who really talk to me here are Jason, Clarisse, and Leo...my blood brother, my aunt, and my boyfriend..."

She smiled at the embarrassment on his face, "Of course we're friends. Ace, I know I came off as a bitch and made it seem like I hated you...But...I don't know, deep down you were starting to grow on me...And now...Well, looks like we're stuck with eachother." She smiled again and laughed slightly.

Gael was staring at the two of them like they were crazy, "You tried to kill each other."

"Did we ask you?" Ace sassed him, but was smiling at Ebony.

She smiled back brightly, happy to have made a new friend. Then fake pouted at Gael, "What's the matter Gael? Jealous that I have a new friend who happens to be a guy. Well, I have a secret for you...He's gay. There's no need to worry." She laughed. This was obviously the pain killers and the concussion talking.

Ace laughed brightly, but quickly turned into a pained wince. Chiron looked up at him, "It wouldn't hurt so much if you'd stop breaking them. You're suppose to be on bedrest anyway."

"I have been in bed." Ace told him honestly, "Leo has been fussing over me, probably from guilt. He wanted to come in here, but I convinced him to stay out in the hallway."

Ebony looked at him concerned, "Wait, what?! Why is Leo feeling guilty?!" She winced as the volume of her voice gave her a headache.

"I got hurt because of him." Ace shrugged, wincing, "He snuck off to help us on offense, and the cyclops who went after you was coming up behind him. I tried to jump in, and do what I did to her when she went after you but...well, she did this." He nodded at the gash Chiron was now stitching up, "Leo's fine, but he's been beating himself up about it."

Eb nodded, "Oh." The action of moving her head up and down increased her headache.

Gael moved in, "You should rest up some more. That was a bad blow to the head."

The blonde nodded, "Yeah, rest up. Maybe after we're both better we could train or go find a monster to kill in the woods or...whatever friends here do."

Ebony smiled, "Sounds like a plan." The last word came out as yawn as she put her head back against the pillow again.


	11. 11) Ace Kindle

Ace was mostly back to normal a week later. The gash in his side was still healing, but Chiron said it was okay for him to go off bedrest (who knew bedrest with your sexual partner babying you could get boring?) he just had to be careful of the stitches because if they broke again he'd be back there before he could say Tartarus.

That morning, he smiled at Ebony, and went over to her during breakfast, "Hey, how are you feeling?"

Ebony groaned, "I still have a concussion. So it feels like a hangover. A very, very bad hangover. Except my stomach doesn't hurt." She put her head in her hands and closed her eyes. "This sucks..."

He nodded, "Leo managed to not break my stitches long enough for Chiron to let me out of the bed. Do you wanna do something today?"

"Sure. Let's go into the woods. Take a walk. Somewhere quiet."

Ace nodded, before going back to the Ares table, "Sure."

He was waiting for her by the woods after breakfast with his spatha in hand. As usual, he wore jeans and a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. The orange still felt weird.

Ebony looked at him, "Ready?" Her migraine was so bad from sitting with all the noisy campers at lunch that she could barely talk above a whisper.

Ace smiled, and nodded. He pushed himself off the tree he'd been leaning again, "You should lead. I don't know my way around in there." Ebony nodded and hiked off into the woods. Her sword out and at the ready, just in case. He followed, keeping up easily despite a slight limp. His spatha swung at his side, giving off an air of defenselessness but he would be ready for an attack at a second's notice.

Ebony glanced around the woods, slightly on edge. Nothing had felt right since the attack and she needed to talk to someone.

"So..." Ace started awkwardly after walking for a few minutes in silence, "How's life been?"

Ebony wasn't used to opening up to people but since Ace was her new sassy, gay best friend, why not talk to him? "Everything is turned upside down ass backwards."

He looked at her, clearly confused, "What do you mean?"

"I...This constant headache and...and Gael can't get into my dreams anymore. It's just frustrating."

"Do you...need him in your dreams?" Ace honestly had no clue how to do this emotional stuff, but he was trying. That had to count for something, right?

"No. Its just...He helps whenever I get my usual terrifying nightmare..." She went on to explain the last dream she had her nightmare, and how Gael helped her. That was last time he was able to come into her dreams.

"Oh..." Ace rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, "Do you...have harm issues...?"

Ebony stopped in her tracks and looked at him, "What do you mean?"

Something told Ace he'd overstepped. He looked down, blushing, "Sorry, it just...with some of what you said...it sounded like you might..."

"Yeah. I do...Did." She rubbed her arm, "I don't want to talk about this anymore...What's going on with you lately? How's Leo?"

"Well, he's been enjoying my week of bedrest and having nothing to do. That's been about it." Ace shrugged, "It's nothing to be ashamed about you know."

Ebony sighed, "Yes it is." Something moved in the corner of her eye but she disregarded it for the moment.

He didn't answer for a few seconds before walking to the stream they'd stopped next to. Ace leaned down, letting the water run over his hand for a minute before standing up. He didn't look at her as he undid the button on his pants to push onside down a bit, exposing his hip. The wet fingers ran over his perfect skin leaving a less-than-commercial-perfect picture. His hip was littered with cut scars that shone clear white against his tanned skin. His fingers had traces of makeup left on them.

Ebony gazed at the scars then rolled up the sleeve of her shirt where tiny scars crossed across her bicep. Then she turned over her arm and showed him the light scars criss-crossing along the soft skin on her arm. "There are more on my legs..." She looked at the ground, unable to look at her own scars.

Ace sat in the grass, staring down at the rushing water, "...I don't even remember where they all are except when I cover them every morning."

Ebony looked at the ground. She never really told anyone about her scars, she wasn't proud of what she did. If Ebony could have it her way she would shove the past into a steel box and throw it into the sea, never to be seen again. She couldn't bury the scars and the pain but she sure as Hades could run from it or try to forget it ever happened, "Look, Ace. I'm happy that you're sharing this with me but, the last thing I want to do is think about the blade and the pain. I've spent too long trying to bury it or cast it out to sea to then go and sit here, talking about it..." She looked out over the stream and into the woods. "Maybe someday I'll have to courage to face it. But not now, not today."

Ace looked down shyly, "Oh, o-of course. S-sorry."

Just as he looked down, Ebony noticed something move in the corner of her eye again. She followed the shape with her peripheral vision and kept looking straight ahead. It moved around them again, slowly circling closer. Eb stood and slowly raised her sword, preparing for an attack.

The sound was the first thing that made the blonde look up. He saw the shape as well, and stood quickly with his spatha out. It wasn't something that looked familiar. The monster moved closer, and Ace could finally start to see details.

The thing growled with it's fangs out. They had blood dripping from them. The thing's eyes glowed red in the shadows. It was heavily cloaked so he couldn't seem anything more than the glistening red. He inched backwards, his hand reaching out to Ebony's wrist, "W-we should..."

Every instinct in her body told her to stay and fight. No child of Hades would be scared by this monster. But, sometimes instincts aren't always logical. Ebony did a quick assessment of their current situation. Ace had stitches that had a problem staying closed, she had a concussion and there was a gigantic monster standing in front of them. The odds were against them, "Yeah..." it was like she knew he was going to say, haul ass back to camp. "That sounds like a great plan." Slowly, she backed up, keeping her eyes on the beast.

The thing kept after them, and Ace was too scared to turn his back to it. Basics at Camp Jupiter; never put your back to your enemy. It was faster than them though, and as it passed through a ray of sunlight the blonde realized what it was. They didn't exist in the Roman world, but he'd read about them in one of his books, "Ebony, it's a Mormo...they're the foundation for modern vampire stories."

"Okay...Well, how do we kill it?" She did her best to suppress the panic rising to the surface.

"I don't know! I've never seen one before!" Ace whispered more harshly than he meant too. Panic was overcoming him. He was fine with a lot of scary monsters as long as he knew how to deal the shit, when it came to something like this...the fear and panic could consume him.

Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the monster disappeared into the darkness of the woods. Despite himself, Ace started to relax some. As long as the thing stayed gone...He turned towards the camp to only to jump back as the monster's face was inches from his own. His ankle hit a rock, and he fell with a cry of shock and pain that sounded through the woods. He felt the stitches in his side rip open as his back it the rocks. Something cracked in his ankle during the fall, and pain flared up in it. The monster made a shrieking noise, to claim them as his prey Ace figured, before disappearing once more.

Ebony sighed as the monster flew off then she turned to Ace and tried to swallow her horror. The boy was laying on the ground bleeding profusely and his ankle was turned at an odd angle. If she didn't make a decision fast he could bleed out. "Ace! Can-Can you walk?"

"I-I don't..." Ace muttered, before trying. He grabbed onto the closest tree branch to lift himself up, putting as little weight on his left ankle as he could. The blonde slowly tried to take a step with it while still holding tightly to the tree, but he screamed softly, crumpling to the ground, "No. I-I don't think so..."

"Shit, shit, shit." She glanced at the sky looking for the monster. "Okay, I'll just have to drag you to the shadows and we'll be back at camp in a second." She strapped her shield to his chest, just in case. Then stood over his head, bending over so he can grab her wrists. Her sword as still in her right hand in case the Mormo came back to eat them for brunch.

Pulling him to the shadows was agonizingly slow. Although, in reality, it only took a few seconds, having to drag Ace while walking backwards and trying not to fuck up his ankle more was a hard task. Once she reached the shadows she concentrated on the infirmary, nothing happened. Ebony squeezed her eyes tight and concentrated harder. When she opened her eyes she was still in the woods, Ace clinging to her like a limp noodle. Ebony cursed under her breath then sighed, "Looks like I'm dragging you all the way back..." Several minutes later they only made it about four yards when a screeching alerted them to the monster's presence.

Ace hated being useless like this, but it was all he could do to keep from blacking out. The pain in his ankle was lightening to a deep throb, but he could feel the blood rushing out of his chest with every heartbeat already soaking his shirt. Still he held his spatha up as the monster reappeared. It's blood red eyes were trained on the two struggling demigods. It jumped down from branches of a nearby tree with its talons aimed right at Ebony's chest.

Even in his daze, Ace managed to slash at the monster. His spatha didn't make much of a difference as the mormo dodged out the way, but at least the thing hadn't gotten at the daughter of Hades.

Ebony's heart was racing uncontrollably, "Thanks." She sucked in a deep breath and pulled Ace, this time skipping being gentle. She focused on keeping a steady pace, avoiding major rocks and branches that would make Ace's injuries worse.

The mormo came back at them, claws extended ready to perform a quick slice and dice on the two demigods. The beast flew down at them in a nose dive, baring its sharp teeth. Ebony put Ace down gently out of the way then stood in front of him. If this monster wanted to eat her sassy, gay best friend it would have to go through her first. The mormo struck at her, startling her with its huge size. Ebony raised her sword and slashed at the monster. To someone standing on the sidelines, it would look like she was fearless, but truth was, Ebony was scared shitless.

The blonde watched through lidded eyes as Ebony stood up to defend him, and couldn't help but feel a wave of guilt rush through him. It had taken less than a minute for him to be nothing but dead weight on her shoulders. As the mormo rushed at her, he felt a sick feeling settle in his stomach while blackness overcame his vision. Softly, he murmured before blacking out completely, "Sorry, Eb..."

The mormo flew off again, as quickly as it came. "Shit." she said, still looking as it soared off. Then she turned back to Ace, "A-Ace?" He was passed out cold, the last thing she needed was for him to pass out. Ebony groaned, now she had no way to keep her sword out and drag him back to camp. She would have to sheath her sword which would cost her precious seconds when the mormo came again.

She had no choice. She was going to drag him with her sword sheathed and pray to the gods her reflexes were fast enough. Eb put away her sword and grabbed Ace by the wrists. Slowly, she pulled him to the camp. They only made it a few more yards when the mormo came back for them to finish the job. Ebony dropped Ace's arms and drew her sword, waiting for the beast to attack.

It perched itself in a tree analyzing its prey and the threat level. The moments ticked by, Ebony was growing anxious with the anticipation of what the creature would do next. Finally, it made its move. The mormo glided down from the branches and raised its claws, aimed for Ace. Ebony stepped in its path trying to deflect the claws with her sword to keep it away from Ace. It worked, but in the process the mormo slashed her arm instead. She cried out as a burning sensation flared up in her right bicep. She slashed at the monster, penetrating its thick armor. The mormo let out a high pitched screaming sound and flew away again, blood dripping to the ground.

From the dark came a raspy dry voice in hardly above a whisper, "Leave the boy. He's just slowing you down. The blood will just draw more monsters to you. You can't save him. Just leave him, and save yourself."

As soon as the creature spoke all the light seemed to drain from the woods. Shadows crept in around them. She shouldn't have been afraid, the shadows obey her. But she was. These shadows felt different to her. They were colder, more menacing. She shook her head to clear it, she was obviously imagining it.

Ebony glared at the spot where the voice came from, "No. I'm not leaving him."

Again the voice came, but from a different spot, "Die alone or die together. It makes no difference to me. It just gives me more dinner."

"I don't think so. The only one dying today is going to be you!" She raised her sword, prepared to attack.

The mormo dive bombed her, talons outstretched towards her chest with its fangs glistening with blood. Ebony barely managed to raise her sword in time to block the attack. The force managed to knock her over, she fell flat on her back, praying to the gods that someone from camp would notice they've been gone for awhile and come searching.

It disappeared again, and a few minutes later there came a call from the woods in the direction of camp, "Ace?! Eb?! Where are you guys? Donde estas?"

Ebony watched the mormo fly off again, "Leo! Over here!" Silently she thanked the gods for sending someone, even though it wasn't a buff Ares kid, or someone useful in a fight. Leo was better than no one.

Leo walked over to them, "Do the woods seem darker to you?" Then he noticed Ace laying on the ground, about as useful as a sack of potatoes. "Ace?!" he looked at Eb, "What happened?!" A screech from the mormo came as an answer.

"A mormo." She looked Leo up and down, unarmed. Figures Leo would walk into the woods without a weapon. "Look, I need you to either get help, or drag Ace back to camp while I fight this thing."

Leo leaned down, easily picking the blonde up. He weighed less than a hundred pounds after all even as dead weight, "Come on, Eb. You're not going to be able to kill that thing. Lets just get out of here. You both need healing."

Ebony looked at him, "No. This thing isn't even supposed to be in the camp. Chiron would never allow something like it in the woods. It needs to be gone before someone else gets hurt or killed."

"We'll tell Chiron then. He'll send a group out to deal with it." Leo shifted Ace awkwardly. The blonde's blood was starting to leak onto Ebony's shield strapped to his chest, "Ace isn't going to last much longer. We don't have the time to debate."

"Fine. Go. I'll cover you." She raised her sword as the mormo reappeared in the trees.

"Three for dinner then." The mormo growled, jumping off of the branches at them. Leo ducked, and started back towards camp letting Ebony take care of the monster. His boyfriend was dying in his arms.

Ebony looked behind her. Leo sure made good time because he was already gone, she couldn't see him anymore. She turned her attention back to the mormo, "No one is dying today."

Leo glanced back, realizing that he'd left Ebony. He stopped for a minute, but Ace was getting paler by the second. Despite himself, Leo raced quickly back to camp. As he reached the edge, he started calling for help.

The mormo growled, dodging her sword to get in closer with its fangs aimed right at her neck. Ebony blocked with the sword and slashed at the mormo's claws, cutting one off. The monster howled in pain, flying off again into the shadows. In a few seconds, it was back coming from Ebony's left side with near perfect silence.

Ebony whipped around just in time. The mormo flew into her defense again, claws outstretched. Only, this time, instead of striking it took her sword, breaking it in half. She cursed in Greek and searched frantically for a weapon. The claw! She made a dive for it, rolling to her knee and thrust the claw upward into the mormo's heart. The creature screeched and writhed for a moment before turning into ashes. Quickly she stood and started scattering the ashes. Once she was satisfied that it wouldn't come back she picked up her sword and started to walk out of the woods. Her arm that got scratched was soaked in blood that was now starting to dry. The burning sensation turned into a throb, she turned her arm over and did a quick assessment, it wasn't too bad. The cut was four inches long and not too deep.

"Ebony?" Jason's voice echoed through the woods, "Ebony! Where are you?"

Ebony stumbled towards the voice, light headed. "Here." She stumbled out of the edge of the woods, mormo claw in hand.

The blonde sighed, and raced to her. His arm went around her instinctively, "I got you. Where's the mormo? Clarisse will take care of it."

"Dead."

Jason didn't question it, just nodded, and helped her back to the infirmary where healers were rushing about. Ace lay in one of the beds eyes closed, pale, and not moving.

Ebony ran to his bedside, "Shit. Is he going to be okay? I did my best to get him here fast enough..."

"I don't know." Leo was pacing and looked panicked, "They're trying, but..."

Ebony walked over to him and put a hand on his arm, "It'll be okay. Lets just give them some space to work." She turned to walk out of the room, the wound on her arm and her concussion completely forgotten.

He didn't look like he wanted to, but Leo followed her out of the room. Jason came out a minute later with a cup of nectar, "Here, Ebony. That cut needs healing"

"Thanks." she took the cup and looked around, expecting to see Gael. But, once again, in her time of need he wasn't there. The first person who came looking for them was Leo. The first person who helped when she came out of the woods was Jason. The first person to help her when she needed healing was, once again, not Gael. "Hey Jason. Have you seen Gael?"

Jason shrugged, "He was with Jacoby this morning. Something about dream training."

"Okay. Thanks." She headed towards the Morpheus cabin.


	12. 12) Gael Hastings

Gael lay in the bed next to Ace's with his eyes closed in sleep. It was far from a peaceful rest. His eyes moved rapidly behind his eyelids, and ever few seconds some part of his body would twitch. Around him stood Jason, Leo, Chiron, Clarisse, and Will from the Apollo cabin. They'd been like this for half an hour, before Gael sat up suddenly with a gasp.

"What is it?" Clarisse growled, her arms crossed.

The son of Morpheus shook his head, "He's connected at least, but everything was so busy...panicky."

Ebony walked back into the infirmary and saw Gael sitting on the bed next to Ace's. She couldn't help but wonder what he was doing before he ran in here for Ace. She stood against the wall, arms crossed waiting for him to take notice of her.

"Well, as long as he's connected he should be okay. Hopefully he'll wake up soon." Will offered, going over to Ace to check his heart rate.

Gael glanced at Ebony, smiling at her slightly before realizing that she was mad. He looked at her curiously, but looked away as Leo asked, "What kind of panicky?"

"Um, there...there was a lot going on...Memories I guess of growing up in New Rome, but they changed too quickly for me to follow." Gael shook his head, "Something about a lady in a chariot repair shop, and a...an accident."

Leo gasped, "What kind of accident?"

"It...it was really confusing, I didn't get the details." Gael muttered.

"Probably his mom." Jason put in softly, "Before I left...there hadn't been an accident there for years, and...he said she died recently..."

"Really? That seems a little odd? Doesn't it?"

Jason shrugged, "I don't know...he was really shaken up about it. That's why he-"

Before Jason could finish, he'd lost everyone's attention. Ace groaned, his eyes still closed as he tried to sit up, "J-jay?"

The younger blonde moved over to the bed quickly, "You're okay, Ace."

As soon as they all ran over to Ace, Ebony pushed herself away from the wall. She wasn't sure if she wanted to confront Gael or ignore Gael and let him come to her. She decided on the latter option, she shot Gael a quick look before walking over to Ace's bedside.

Dull red eyes blinked open to look at the people surrounding him. Leo smiled down at him, but Jason and Clarisse seemed pissed. She shook her head, "What happened to taking it easy?"

"I was taking it easy." Ace muttered.

Jason crossed his arms, "Going out looking for monsters is not taking it easy."

"We just went for a walk." He looked up at Ebony, "Right?"

Gael hung back, trying to figure out what he did to make Ebony upset. He hadn't gotten into her dreams, but that was because they were shutting him out not because he hadn't been trying. She knew that. True he spent that day with Jacoby helping him work his new found powers, but Ebony had said she was going to be with Ace most of the day anyway...

"Yeah. It was just a walk. Then that monster showed up to rain on our parade. Plus, its partly my fault, I had to drag him back here. Thats probably what caused the rest of the stitches to break."

Ace couldn't look at her, "Thanks, by the way, for that whole dragging thing...not letting me die out there or something..."

Ebony smiled, "You're welcome. You saved me, I was returning the favor."

"You'll have to stay here for a while, no more bedrest in your cabin." Chiron stated, "You'll stay here to heal that cut. After that, we'll give you crutches for the ankle."

Ace made a disgusted face, "Crutches?"

"Its either that, or you'll have to take ambrosia."

It took him a minute to answer, "I'll put up with the crutches."

Ebony sighed, "Ace, why don't you just take the ambrosia and get it over with?"

"No...I...I'll be fine."

Leo looked at him, "Okay." Then he bent down to kiss him lightly.

The kiss relaxed Ace as he kissed back lightly, smiling brightly. Gael stood awkwardly, a sick feeling settling in his stomach. He muttered before leaving, "Hope you feel better."

He walked out to the porch of the big house, half hoping that Ebony would follow him while half of him dreaded it.

Ebony followed him outside, "Where were you?"

"With Jacoby." He didn't turn around, "Did I do something wrong?"

Ebony tossed her hands in the air, "It's what you didn't do! Gael, you're never there..."

"Never there." Gael didn't even try to hide the bitterness in his voice, "I'm not psychic, I can't just know when you're in trouble. I have to deal with my responsibilities. I can't be there to hold your hand every time something happens, and honestly I didn't think you would expect that."

"When I got hurt the night of the attack I expected you to be there for me, but you weren't. When I was coming out of the woods you weren't in sight. Jason and Leo both headed out to look for us. But not you." Ebony tried to keep the rage out of her voice but failed.

"I tried to be there for you, but I was too far away. Afterwards, I spent hours trying to get to you, not leaving your bedside for days. Today, I didn't know anything was wrong or I would have been there. I was in the cabin with my brother, trying to get his dream jumping under control."

"Look, I'm sorry that I thought you could be there for me. As for today, we were gone for three or four hours. By that point you can assume something might not be right." She sat down on the ground, fists clenched.

"You were with Ace, I figured you were just talking and lost track of time. Besides, you don't need protecting all the time. You can take of yourself."

"I know that!" She stood suddenly, seething with anger, "I've been taking care of myself since I was ten years old Gael! Since I was a child! Sometimes I wish I could trust you to have my back. Sometimes I want to be protected instead of doing it for everyone else! I've spent my entire life protecting myself, never trusting anyone. Even though I don't always need protecting it would be nice if you tried."

"I have been trying, but I have to keep up with my responsibilities or dad will interfere." When Gael got upset, he didn't yell or shout. His voice got deadly calm, and soft.

"You know, just focus on your responsibilities." She paused,"If you can't fit me in with your responsibilities then maybe I just don't belong with you at all." It killed her to say it, but he hurt her. Just when she thought she found someone who could protect her for a change, he didn't.

"Don't...don't say that. We just have to figure things out." The hurt in his voice was right there for anybody listening to hear.

Ebony sighed the anger from her voice and being replaced with a more melancholy tone, "I don't know what else to say..."

"We just need more time to figure out how to work each other into our lives." Gael muttered, hands clutching the rail so tight they were going white.

"Gael. I know how to work you into my life. I already have." Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, "Let me know when you figure out how to do the same for me." She wiped her eyes and walked away, choking back the sobs.


	13. 13) Ace Kindle

It felt weird having so many people fussing over him. Back in New Rome, as soon as the healer said you'd be fine everybody else would go back work. But here, Leo, Jason, and Clarisse stayed at his bedside with Will checking in every now and then.

When the dinner bell rung, Jason, and Clarisse stood to go to dinner, but Leo made no move to follow them. Ace smiled at his boyfriend, and rolled his eyes, "You need food, Bello."

"No. I'll be fine. I want to stay here with you." He looked at him worriedly.

The blonde sighed, sitting up at the edge of the bed, and pulled Leo in between his legs. Ace kissed him lightly before stating, "I'll be fine. I was going to go shower anyway."

Leo kissed back sweetly, "I could join you..."

He laughed, blushing, "And what would we tell Chiron? You were making sure I didn't fall?"

Leo shrugged, "Yeah."

Ace sighed, "Fine, but you are not actually getting in the shower with me. You can go sit outside the stall. If you actually come in, I wouldn't get clean you just make me more of a mess, and I already feel disgusting."

Leo groaned, "Fine. Fine." Then he offered Ace a hand to help him out of the bed.

He stood awkwardly, and leaned on Leo for support. Ace looked around for something else to rest weight on, and grabbed one of the crutches that lay next to his bed, "What actually happened to my ankle?"

Leo looked at him, "Ebony said you were walking backwards. Away from the mormo and you tripped."

Ace smiled, "I remember that. I meant, is it broken or sprained? It feels broken, but I've never had a sprain before so I don't know how different they'd feel."

"Its broken. When I brought you in your ankle was twisted at a very odd angle. No foot is meant to bend like that..."

"Thanks for coming to the rescue...I guess sometimes I need somebody else to do the saving...And you make a very dashing knight in flaming armor."

Leo blushed, "Come on. Lets get you to the showers..." He gently pulled his boyfriend along to the showers.

As they passed the dining pavilion, Jason made a you have got to be kidding me face. Ace just stuck his tongue out at the younger blonde, "I'm taking a shower! I'm covered in sweat, sap, and blood!"

Leo looked between the two Romans and laughed. Then lead Ace into the boys' shower rooms. Carefully he lead Ace to a shower and helped him lean against a wall. He undressed slowly before sitting on one of the benches, and carefully taking off the aircast they had his ankle in. Leo turned on the water for him then turned to Ace.

"Want any help?" His tone made it clear that he had no sexual intentions, that he genuinely wanted to help Ace.

The blonde stood, awkwardly not putting weight on his left ankle. His usual expanse of perfectly tanned skin marred by where he'd showed Ebony his cuts on his left hip. Ace smiled at Leo, "I got it, Bello. I already feel useless enough without everybody else trying to take care of me."

Leo forced himself to tear his eyes away from the scars, "Okay...I'll be right outside." He kissed him sweetly before stepping out of the shower.

Ace was careful to keep from putting weight on his ankle as he used the walls of the shower stall to support himself. He didn't lock the door, just in case something did happen, and he needed Leo's help. The water was just the right temperature, making his muscles relax. With the water ran away the perfection he tried to maintain. Cutting scars peppered his hips, thighs, and a little ways onto his stomach. There were other scars on his chest and arms from battle wounds. As the water hit his stitches, Ace gasped from the sudden flash of pain.

Leo heard Ace gasp and walked over to his shower stall, "Ace? Are you okay?" His voice was lathered in worry.

"I'm fine! Just...forgot the stitches were there." Ace had his eyes closed with his breathing hard as he tried to focus on the pain. Focus on it, then drive it away. Let it become part of the norm.

Leo, still worried, but decided to allow Ace a little freedom, "Okay..." He sat down on a bench and waited for him to be done.

Ace took his time, letting the water wash away everything bad. The dirt and sweat from the battle, his stress about letting the others take care of him for a change, the pain of his injuries dulling, and his worries about Ebony with her scars along with his fears of Leo finding his own scars. Its nothing to be ashamed of. He'd said that to Ebony, but he wasn't completely sure he believed it.

Finally, he asked softly, "Hey, Bello. Can you hand me a towel?"

"Sure." Leo grabbed a towel from off the hook and brought it into Ace. "Here." He helped him wrap it around his waist and tie it so it wouldn't fall off.

Ace smiled at him sweetly, "Thanks."

He moved over to the bench again, carefully using another towel to dry off his broken ankle before rewrapping it. While he was focused on that, he asked Leo, "Is the Argo II going to be ready on time?"

"Yeah. It'll be ready within the next few weeks. You'll be healed by then." Leo smiled at him.

Ace smiled, muttering more to himself than to Leo, "Good. Wouldn't want to be seen like this..."

Leo grabbed Ace's clean clothes off of a dry bench and handed them to him, "Here."

"Thanks." The blonde hesitated before taking his towel off to pull his clothes on. He knew Leo had to see the scars, they weren't exactly easy to miss, but he decided it didn't matter. The son of Hephaestus would have to meet them eventually, and Ace couldn't see the harm in that introduction happening now before things got too far.

Leo gazed at the scars, not knowing exactly what to say. How would he ask about them? Should he ask about them? "Ace...What happened?" Although he already guessed what they were from he couldn't think of a better way to bring them up.

The question made Ace hesitate in his actions before pulling his shirt on, "Which one?"

"The ones on your hip and legs..."

Ace turned to Leo, and shyly moving in to hug him. He muttered into Leo's neck, "They...They're like battle scars from an invisible enemy I've long since defeated."

Leo held him tightly, knowing exactly what he meant. Not personally but because he's seen it many times. "I understand." he kissed Ace gently and sweetly.

He kissed back before moving over to pull the rest of his cast back on, "Lady Venus helped..."

"What do you mean she 'helped'?" His tone grew defensive.

That tone made Ace laugh, "Good help. She...Here." He pulled Leo down onto the bench before showing him his tattoo. Ace's fingers traced the symbol proudly burned into his skin next to the SPQR, "Normally, you bare the symbol of your godly parent, but legacies pick...not so much pick...are chosen by a god or goddess. Usually, a grandparent, but for me...it was Lady Venus. She came to me the night before I was suppose to get my tattoo after a year in the legion. I'd been fighting my invisible enemy for...a while at that point, and...I didn't want to keep going.

"She showed up, and she was so beautiful. She told me that my problem was that I spent too much time focusing on what others said. I believed it, which never gave me the chance to love myself, and if I didn't love myself then how could I expect others to. She offered her help as long as I kept fighting." Ace stopped, taking a deep breath to try his best to keep the tears back, "The next morning she claimed me in front of everybody, and we marked my one year with the legion. She helped me defeat my invisible enemies without anybody else finding out."

Leo hugged Ace tightly, not knowing what to say. But he figured, at this point, loving silence was as good as words. Then, he decided, at this moment, that there were three perfect words to say. "I love you."

The blonde looked at him, wiping the tears from his own cheeks. He answered without any hesitation, and no doubt in his voice,"I love you too."

Leo smiled brightly and kissed him, "Okay. I think you should get dressed and back to the infirmary now."

Ace laughed softly, "Yeah, no getting you in trouble."

He pulled the aircast back on, before standing awkwardly with a crutch supporting his one side. Ace reached his left arm out to Leo for support.

When Leo was able to get Ace back into bed safely he finally relaxed, "You hungry now that you're all cleaned up?"

Ace shrugged, "A little."

Just then the door opened to let Jason in carrying two plates, "I thought you two lovebirds might be hungry."

The older boy laughed, taking one of the plates, "Thanks, lil bro."

"I hate when you call me that." Jason muttered, offering Leo the other plate.

Leo took the other plate, laughing, "Thanks, Jason."'


	14. 14) Ebony Blake

**Authors note: **So, this is the last chapter, but we are writing a sequel that in essence goes with Mark of Athena while ignoring Coach Hedge, and making it so that more than just the seven go on the Argo II.

It was several weeks after Ebony broke up with Gael yet her heart still ached for him. No matter how hard she tried to forget what they had she couldn't. Every night she would lay in bed and think about the boy she threw away, for the most stupid reason. Although she missed him, her pride wouldn't let her go crawling back to him.

But she also couldn't let herself forget that he didn't make time for her even though she made room for him. Since she got her concussion Gael couldn't reach her in her dreams. Without the dreams it was like she never saw him. Ebony was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, but, sometimes its nice to have someone want to protect you.

Today, she decided, to go to the arena to practice. To take her mind off of him and try and purge him from her system once and for all. She walked into the arena, it was completely empty. She walked to weapons rack, grabbed her sword, then beat on a practice dummy.

Gael wandered around the camp listlessly. He hadn't had much drive to do much of anything for the past few weeks which resulted in a lot more demigods losing sleep of mortal styled nightmares. Jacoby had convinced him to go out that day, so he did. Ace and Leo were being the cute perfect couple while working on finishing up the Argo II so rather than feel bad for himself, he decided to head to the arena. Maybe winning a fight or two against a newbie would make him feel better.

When he arrived though, he saw Ebony beating up a dummy. Just seeing her, made his heart twinge. He watched her for a few minutes before acting on his ADHD, "You wanna fight?"

Ebony turned to him, her heart ached at the sight of his dark messy hair and his dark eyes. But, maybe this fight is what she needs to get him out of her system once and for all. "Sure." There was little emotion in her voice, although her eyes probably told a different story.

He tried to keep his emotions at bay, but had never been very good at that. Instead of looking at her, he unhooked his knives. The charm bracelet around his wrist that held his crossed knives also had a sleeping eye, a dream cloud, and the newest charm that Ebony hadn't seen before was a skull. He held one knife in each hand, and looked up at her emotionless.

Ebony eyed the skull charm wondering where he got it. Who gave it to him? What did it represent? She shook her head to clear the thoughts that swirled around in her head. Ebony raised her sword and stood in a guard stance.

As usual, Gael jumped into an offensive fight. He nudged in close with one knife swiping at her side while the other held back for defense. Ebony easily blocked his knife then struck at his chest then spun as he struck again this his knives. As the metal clashed, Ebony slowly forgot the pain in her heart over losing him and began running on anger and the adrenaline of the fight.

He kept up easily, blocking her strikes with perfect timing before answering with a blow of his own. They were evenly matched, but he was silently praying that one of them would make a slip. Gael didn't want this to be a draw. In his mind, there was more riding on this fight than it just being a fight. He's promised himself that if she won, he'd walk away without trying to get her back.

Ebony's hands were growing sweaty and her arm was getting sore. They had been fighting for a while now. She stabbed at him, but when he blocked she couldn't hold on to her weapon. The sword flew out of her hand and landed in the sand. She was completely defenseless now.

One of his knives instantly went behind her head to the back of her neck with his other resting comfortably in front of her throat. They were centimeters apart, his face not showing any emotions. After a minute of panting, Gael closed the distance. Their lips brushed lightly together.

Ebony was startled. At first she didn't react then, slowly, she kissed back. Wrapping her arms around his back, pulling him closer. Gods she missed him! She missed the way he felt against her lips, the way he kissed her. She missed the way he made her heart flutter every time they touched. Ebony wished she could capture this moment and never let it go. This was the perfect moment, the one she'd been waiting for, the moment that would make her fall in love.

Gael wanted it to last as well, but after several minutes he had to pull away from the kiss to gasp for air. He looked into her eyes, trying to figure out if what just happened was good or bad. Ebony smiled and said the words she swore she never would, "I love you, Gael."

His smile seemed to light up the room with hope at her words. Gael let his walls down to let the giddiness in his heart out as he laughed from straight out joy, "I love you too."

She kissed him again, softly, "I missed you so much. I'm sorry I got mad. It was stupid of me."

Gael hooked his knives back together, before putting his arms around her waist, "No, you were right...maybe in some ways we both were. I wasn't trying to make room for you in my life..."

She noticed the charm on his bracelet and grabbed his hand to look at it, "What's this?"

He looked away from her, embarrassed, "It...I don't know what made me get it. I guess it was supposed to be a symbol of...trying to fit you in with my responsibilities."

Ebony smiled at him and kissed him again. Then she reached up to her neck and pulled out a necklace with a charm on it too. It matched Gael's cloud and sleeping eye. "I got this awhile ago, before we broke up. But I never showed you, I thought you might think it's...I've never taken it off since I got it."

Gael smiled, pulling her closer to kiss her hungrily, "So...we're okay?"

She kissed him back, running her tongue along his bottom lip. Gods he tasted so good! It took all her strength to not go crazy. "We're better than okay." She smiled and kissed him deeply.


End file.
